Journal of Midwifery & Reproductive health
Volume:6 Issue: 3, Jul 2018

Many researchers believe that religious doctrines have persistent effects on the mental and physical health and other aspects of human life. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pregnancy-related religious training on religious attitudes among pregnant women.
This interventional study was conducted on 84 pregnant women with low and medium levels of religious attitudes in 2013. The study population was randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n=42) and control (n=42). The intervention group received religious education within the gestational weeks of 20-28 in six sessions. The control group received routine hospital trainings. The two groups filled out the religious attitude questionnaires before, immediately after, and two months following the intervention. The data were analyzed with SPSS, version 16, using t-test.
The results of the independence t-test revealed no significant difference between the two groups regarding the level of religious attitudes before the intervention (P=0.936). However, there was a significant difference between the two groups in this regard immediately after the intervention (P=0.001) and two months post-intervention (P=0.001). The level of religious attitudes increased from weak and moderate to a high rate following the intervention.
Given the positive impact of religious education on religious beliefs and attitudes, it is recommended to use this potential in prenatal care planning.

Stability and survival of marital life depends on the love and positive feelings towards spouse in married couples. Sexual assertiveness is considered as a person's ability to have intercourse to meet his/her sexual needs and promote sexual relationships with the spouse. The more couples are aware of each other's sexual needs and can satisfy those needs, the more desirably their emotional bond are developed. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between sexual assertiveness and positive feelings towards spouse in married women.
This correlational study was conducted in 2016 on 60 women visiting Imam Reza Medical Center in Mashhad, Iran. The subjects who were selected through convenience sampling were married and involved in a heterosexual marriage for a minimum of one year. Data was collected using Halbert Index of Sexual Assertiveness and Positive Feelings Questionnaire. To analyze the data, Pearson correlation coefficient, multivariate regression, Mann-Whitney U test, and Chi-squared test were run in SPSS, version 16.
Higher sexual assertiveness scores were associated with more positive feelings towards spouse. The multivariate regression analysis reflected a significant positive correlation between sexual assertiveness and positive feeling toward spouse (r=0.5, P Sexual assertiveness and positive feelings towards spouse are significantly associated, and they affect couples’ emotional and sexual relationship. Considering mutual agreement and sexual rights among couple, providing sexual care and consultancy services are recommended for married women to improve their sexual assertiveness and positive feelings towards their husband.

Based on the current scientific evidence, delayed cord clamping (DCC) elevates early hemoglobin concentrations and iron stores in the neonate. However, the persistent practice of early cord clamping (ECC) is still a routine care. The aim of the present study was to investigate the umbilical cord clamping practices of maternity care providers in Oman.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 175 maternity care providers who were registered members of the Oman Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and participated voluntarily in the study. The data were collected using a modified version of an online survey in form of a questionnaire developed by Stoll and Hutton (2012). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
According to the results, 61% and 31% of the participants were obstetricians and midwifes, respectively, with more than 10 years of experience. The findings indicated that the timing of cord clamping varied among the participants. 87.4-89.6% of the care providers considered ECC timing to be within 1 min of birth, and 70-72.6% of them clamped umbilical cord within 1 min for both normal term and preterm newborns. The most frequently listed benefits of DCC were the physiologic transitioning of the newborn, enhancement of neonatal iron stores, reduced risk of neonatal anemia, and decreased need for transfusions. 45.7% of the participants considered polycythemia and jaundice as the highest associated risks of DCC. Only 11% of the participants reported that they use hospital policy as a reference guide on decision making regarding the timing of cord clamping.
Although the majority of the maternity care providers are aware of the new guidelines regarding the timing of cord clamping, they still follow ECC practice. The high prevalence of ECC highlighted the demand for the implementation of a nation- and hospital-wide policy.

The increased prevalence of infertility and using assisted reproductive technologies including donation procedures has currently become a public concern. The familiarity of midwives with legal and religious aspects of these procedures is a salient issue in their care giving practice. However, this issue has been less considered in the curriculum planning for midwifery students. Thus, this study investigated the effect of workshop and podcast training on midwifery students’ knowledge and performance in terms of legal and religious aspects of egg donation.
This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 60 undergraduate midwifery students of Islamic Azad University of Mashhad and postgraduate midwifery students at Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad, Iran. The university students in the workshop group were trained through lectures accompanied by PowerPoint files for a total of 6-8 hours, while the podcast group received three separate 25-minute audio files and discussed them in a Telegram-based group. The objective structured clinical examination was also administered before and two weeks after the training course at four stations. To analyze the data, Chi-squared test, paired t-test, and independent t-test were run in SPSS, version 16.
The mean knowledge scores were significantly different between two groups (P=0.004); however, no significant differences were observed between them in terms of educational performance (P=0.63).
Podcast-based training using Telegram was more effective in promoting the students’ knowledge regarding legal and religious issues associated with egg donation compared to workshop training; nevertheless, educational performance increased in the same level using both methods.

pregnancy is a normal part of life, however, high-risk pregnancy that need bed rest can be stressful and affect woman and her family. Therefore, understanding the needs of women on bed rest seems to be necessary to enhance the quality of care services. The present study was conducted to investigate the women's needs on bed rest during high-risk pregnancy and postpartum period.
This qualitative study was performed among women with high-risk pregnancy using purposeful sampling method. Data were collected by conducting 31 semi-structured interviews with 21 pregnant women, 10 spouses, and 7 medical staff involved in their healthcare. Data analysis was carried out using conventional content analysis developed by Hsieh and Shannon.
According to the results, there were four main categories of needs entailing the need for psychosocial support, support for family and personal affairs, support for looking after children, and the need for economic support. The final category was the need for comprehensive support.
The personal and family life of pregnant women is affected during bed rest. Accordingly, comprehensive support is needed to enable women to cope with these problems. To reach this goal, the provision of family-centered support services based on coordination among health sections, supporting organizations, charities, social workers, and systems providing psychological and consultation services are recommended.

Attitude is taken into account as the most important determinant of behavior. However, the present knowledge considering opinions of the youths on the verge of marriage is not sufficient. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the attitudes towards childbearing in women and men on the verge of marriage attending health centers in Mashhad, Iran.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 on 170 women and 100 men referring to the premarital counseling centers. The participants were selected through convenience sampling method. The data were collected using the Childbearing Attitudes Scale and analyzed by descriptive statistics and independent t-test by the SPSS.
The mean scores of attitudes to childbearing in women and men were 164.03±21.62 and 158.86±24.91, respectively, with no significant difference (P=0.11). The mean desired number of children was 2.23±1.01 in women and 2.14±0.9 in men. There were significant differences between the attitudes of women and men in terms of the impacts of childbirth on women’s body shape (P=0.01), childbearing as one of the purposes of human creation (P=0.04), and the relationship between the number of children and their upbringing quality (P=0.002). A significant relationship was found between the attitudes and ideal number of children (P=0.001).
Attitudes towards childbearing among young adults on the verge of marriage were not so favorable. Consequently, it is essential to implement comprehensive training programs in order to enhance the positive views both in women and men towards childbearing.

Cesarean section (CS) accounts for 35% of all surgical operations in Iran. Post cesarean ileus is a complication of CS. There are various pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical ways for the treatment of this condition. Given the fact that the non-pharmaceutical approaches are better tolerated and often inexpensive, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of chewing gum on post cesarean ileus.
This clinical trial was conducted on 93 patients undergoing CS (i.e., elective or urgent CS) at Sabzevar Mobini Hospital, Savzevar, Iran, between July 2013 and September 2014. The study population was selected using convenience sampling technique and assigned into two groups of chewing gum (n=35) and control (n=58) groups. The subjects in the chewing gum group were encouraged to chew gum at defined intervals. Both groups were evaluated for pain, bowel sounds, first defecations, gas passage, and feeling bowel movements. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software, version 21.
There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the auscultation of first bowel sound, first record of gas passing, and first defecation. The logistic regression models showed that chewing gum was significantly associated with reduced post-operative pain while controlling for surgery duration as a confounding factor (OR: 0.79, 95% CI for OR=0.63, 0.99). However, chewing gum showed no significant relationship with bowel sounds, first defecations, gas passage, and feeling bowel movements.
As the findings indicated, the use of chewing gum after CS was ineffective in the reduction of ileus. However, this practice was only capable of mitigating post-operative pain, and therefore can be used as an adjuvant technique for the management of post-operative pain.

Sepsis is a major cause of neonatal mortality in the developing countries. The prevention and management of this infection require informed workforce and availability of necessary resources and equipment. Regarding this, the present study was conducted to investigate healthcare workers’ neonatal sepsis knowledge; prevention and management strategies in use for the control of the infection as well as barriers to prevention and management of this infection.
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 healthcare workers selected through purposive sampling technique. To collect data a self-structured questionnaire, containing 42 items in three sections including socio-demographic data, knowledge regarding the causes, prevention, and management of neonatal sepsis and also barriers to the prevention of neonatal sepsis was used. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
The results show that the majority of respondents (79.4%) had a good level of knowledge regarding the causes, prevention, and management of neonatal sepsis. However, 20.3% and 0.3% of them had fair and poor levels of knowledge in this regard, respectively. The healthcare workers’ knowledge level was significantly associated with their profession (X2=10.30, df=4, p=0.036) and health institutions (X2=32.45, df=6, p=0.001). The most frequently utilised prevention strategies among the respondents were equipment sterilization, regular changing of bed sheets, and safe delivery practices. The most frequently adopted management strategies mainly included use of antibiotics and effective breastfeeding. Additionally, the barriers to the prevention and management of neonatal sepsis were identified as poor staffing, parents’ inability to pay for services, and lack of the necessary equipment and resources.
As the findings indicated, it is essential to provide the healthcare workers with in-service education on neonatal sepsis. In addition, it is required to improve the availability of equipment and other resources for the prevention and management of neonatal sepsis.

Gender role attitude is one of the key issues affecting the stability of family foundation, which is under the influence of mass media. New media and the process of globalization are effective in promoting gender equality, and an example of modern media is virtual social networks. This study aimed to determine the relationship between virtual social media usage and gender role attitude in the students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences and Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 909 students of two large universities including Mashhad University of Medical Sciences and Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran, in 2015. Data were collected using three questionnaires enquiring the demographic data, type of social media students used, and gender role attitude. The questionnaires were sent to the students via email, or they were filled out them through face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was performed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and Spearman correlation coefficient in SPSS software, version 23.
There was no significant relationship between the type of social media and gender role attitude (P=0.24). Furthermore, no significant relationship was observed between the type of social media and the dimensions of gender role attitude including gender equality and gender stereotypes (P=0.35 and P=0.24, respectively).
There was no significant relationship between the type of social media and gender role attitude and its dimensions. Accordingly, it seems that the content used by these networks had no impact on the gender role attitudes of the users. Further studies are recommended to investigate the other possible factors affecting gender role attitudes.

Prematurity and the admission of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may pose emotional and practical challenges for parents and can cause acute stress disorder (ASD) in their mothers in case of mismanagement. Emotional support training to fathers may prevent mothers from these symptoms. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of training emotional support to fathers on ASD symptoms in the mothers of preterm newborns admitted to NICUs.
This clinical trial was conducted on 61 parents, 31 of whom were assigned into the intervention group, with preterm infants admitted in NICUs of Omolbanin Women's Hospital, Imam Reza Hospital, and Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad, Iran, 2016. The parents in intervention group were trained the skills of emotional support in one 120-minute session. Then, they received the educational content in the form of a brochure. The participants in control group received routine care. Prior to the intervention and four weeks after the birth, the mothers in both groups completed the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ) and the emotional support scale (ESS). Data analysis was performed using independent and paired t-tests, as well as Mann-Whitney U, Chi-squared, and Fisher’s exact test and two-way analysis of variance in SPSS software, version 16.
The mean scores of SASRQ obtained by the intervention and control groups were 20.7±11.0 and 54.6±24.3, respectively in post-intervention phase. The results of the independent t-test showed a significant difference between the groups in terms of SASRQ scores (P Given the positive effect of training emotional support to fathers on ASD symptoms in mothers of preterm newborns admitted to NICUs, it is recommended to plan and implement such training courses for fathers during and after birth.

Using appropriate methods for the assessment of fetal health including non-stress test during high-risk pregnancies due to possible placental insufficiency is of paramount importance. Due to complexity in medical decisions, using information systems is being increased to support complex medical decisions. We conducted this study to measure the diagnostic value of non-stress test interpreted by smart interpretive software.
This study was carried out on 400 non-stress tests obtained from patients’ records regardless of the results of tests in Bent-Ul-Hoda Hospital, Bojnord, Iran. Then, to increase the accuracy of tests, they were interpreted by two specialists with Master’s degree in Midwifery. Finally, the tests were interpreted by the given software. The diagnostic test accuracy was measured using sensitivity and specificity of the software.
Out of 400 selected tests, experts interpreted 126 tests with reaction and 274 cases without reaction. The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the software were 92.45%, 94.07, and 88.40, respectively.
According to the results, the use of this software for interpreting non-stress test results, reduce false- positive and false-negative diagnoses.

Sexual dysfunction is one of the most common problems in women which negatively affect their quality of life, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships. The prevalence of this problem varies in different studies. Regarding this, this review was conducted to provide a clear picture of the prevalence of sexual dysfunction among reproductive-age women in Iran using a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The relevant articles published up to April 9, 2017 were searched both in the international including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and national electronic databases such as SID, IranMedex, Magiran, and Irandoc. The searching process was accomplished using a set of standard keywords. The data were analyzed using RevMan software, version 5.3.
Thedatabase search resulted in the retrieval of 1,024 articles, 9 cases of which were selected for systematic review. Out of the selected studies, seven articles were eligible to be included in the meta-analysis. According to the results of the reviewed studies, the pooled prevalence rate of sexual dysfunction among the reproductive-age women was estimated as 52% (95% CI: 39-66%). Furthermore, the pooled prevalence of sexual dysfunction in the domains of sexual desire, sexual arousal, lubrication, sexual pain, and orgasm was estimated as 39% (95% CI: 35-42%), 34% (95% CI: 21-46%), 32% (95% CI: 21-43%), 38% (95% CI: 24-51%), and 30% (95% CI: 22-38%), respectively.
The results of the retrieved studies demonstrated that sexual dysfunction is a common health problem among the Iranian women of reproductive age. However, more high-quality research is needed in this area.