Breastfeeding initiation rates among immigrant women in central Italy between 2006 and 2011.

Objective: This study was aimed at evaluating differences in breastfeeding initiation rates by maternal place of birth among women giving birth in one of 14 hospitals in Lazio, Italy, between 2006 and 2011.

Methods: The data on 14 hospitals for this study were taken from a survey on healthy newborns carried out during the month of October each year. It collected information on maternal characteristics and infant feeding during the hospital stay.

Use of emergency department services by women victims of violence in Lazio region, Italy.

Background: Violence against women is a significant health problem and a hidden phenomenon, in Italy that about 31% of the women have been victims of violence once in life. Aims of this study are to describe characteristics of women victims of violence (VV) attending the EDs in the Lazio region in 2008 and to illustrate the frequency and characteristics of previous ED visits.

Methods: Using the Emergency Information System, visits of women, (15-49 years), in the 60 EDs, for a violent trauma have been analysed.

Perinatal outcomes among immigrant mothers over two periods in a region of central Italy.

Background: The number of immigrants has increased in Italy in the last twenty years (7.2% of the Italian population), as have infants of foreign-born parents, but scanty evidence on perinatal outcomes is available. The aim of this study was to investigate whether infants of foreign-born mothers living in Italy have different odds of adverse perinatal outcomes compared to those of native-born mothers, and if such measures changed over two periods.

Effect of hospital practices on breastfeeding: a survey in the Italian Region of Lazio.

To investigate hospital practices associated with infant feeding during hospital stay and at 1 month of age, all women who were in 17 maternity hospitals on a given day and had delivered a singleton newborn were contacted. Of the 165 eligible women, 153 participated in the survey. Data were collected from the mothers' clinical records and through interview.