The "Doing" of Compassionate Care in the Context of Childbirth from a Women's Perspective.

Women who are giving birth need to be met with compassion and understanding from healthcare professionals. However, there are growing concerns about the perceived lack of compassion in the delivery of healthcare services in general and maternity care in particular. We conducted 15 qualitative interviews with women who had given birth in Norway within the previous year, asking them to describe their experiences of compassionate care.

The acceptability of implementation of group B Streptococcus testing: Perspectives from women and health professionals in the GBS3 trial: A qualitative study.

Objective: To determine the acceptability of different methods of routine testing for group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonisation to pregnant women and health care professionals (HCPs), and to examine barriers and facilitators to their implementation.

Design: Qualitative study, embedded in a cluster randomised trial SETTING: Four NHS maternity units participating in the GBS3 Trial: two conducting routine antenatal enriched culture medium (ECM) testing; and two using routine rapid intrapartum testing. Sample 39 women and 25 HCPs purposively sampled to ensure representation of women with various birthing experiences and different professions.

Increasing the number of midwives is necessary but not sufficient: using global data to support the case for investment in both midwife availability and the enabling work environment in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Most countries are off-track to achieve global maternal and newborn health goals. Global stakeholders agree that investment in midwifery is an important element of the solution. During a global shortage of health workers, strategic decisions must be made about how to configure services to achieve the best possible outcomes with the available resources.

Birth expectations, birth experiences and childbirth-related post-traumatic stress symptoms in mothers and birth companions: Dyadic investigation using response surface analysis.

Objectives: During the perinatal period, women and their birth companions form expectations about childbirth. We aimed to examine whether a mismatch between birth expectations and experiences predict childbirth-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (CB-PTSS) for mothers and birth companions. We also explored the influence of the mismatch between mothers' and birth companions' expectations/experiences on CB-PTSS.

The acceptability of group B streptococcal bacteria (GBS) testing to women, including self-swabbing procedures: A qualitative study.

Background: Group B streptococcus (GBS) is a bacterium carried by 20-25 % of pregnant women in the UK, which can be transmitted from pregnant women to their babies at the time of birth. Women can be tested for GBS in pregnancy using a vaginal-rectal swab, however, this testing is currently not routinely offered in the UK. A large clinical trial is underway to determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of routine testing (ISRCTN reference number ISRCTN49639731).