Post-Katrina perinatal mood and the use of alternative therapies.

Purpose And Design: The purpose of this cross-sectional, exploratory study is to describe perinatal moods and complementary alternative therapy (CAT) use among childbearing women living in New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina. How women coped with the disaster with limited access to mental health services was not known.

Method: A convenience sample of 199 postpartal/expectant mothers completed two questionnaires.

A multicultural and multilingual outreach program for cervical and breast cancer screening.

Partners in Health: The Breast and Cervical Health Cooperative is a New Orleans-based community health intervention program designed to increase the access of underserved multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual women to cervical and breast cancer health education and screening. This article describes innovative approaches used over the past 4 years to successfully link the services of a university cancer center to women in the community through a culturally sensitive outreach program. In addition to cancer screening, health referrals were made for many other diverse medical/social complications such as hypertension, obesity, and violence.

Changing men's involvement in reproductive health and family planning.

The shift in focus on men's reproductive health was influenced by the 1994 Cairo (ICPD) Action Plan to promote gender equality and equity, empower women, and improve family health in society. Changing and improving the way in which men are involved in reproductive health can only have a positive impact on women's, men's, and children's health. Educating and counseling men about contraceptive choices is essential if they are to be supportive of women's reproductive health.

Men of diverse cultures: knowledge and attitudes about breastfeeding.

Objective: The purpose of this study was three-fold: (a) to describe the knowledge of and attitudes on breastfeeding of men from diverse racial backgrounds, (b) to determine the relationship between knowledge and attitude toward breastfeeding, and (c) to determine the relationship between specified demographic variables and men's knowledge or attitudes on breastfeeding.

Design: Descriptive

Setting: An inner-city teaching hospital and its associated prenatal clinic located in the southern United States.

Participants: One hundred men from diverse cultures who spoke either English or Spanish, were 18 years of age or older, and were present at either the hospital maternity units or associated prenatal clinic.