No abstract available.
Perinatal Care*

Background: In Vietnam, although there were interventions in perinatal and neonatal care services, the neonatal mortality reduced slowly, accounting for >50% of under-5-year-old mortality rate and >70% of under-1-year-old mortality rate. \r\n', u'Objectives: Discover the status of prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care services, and analyze the relationships between healthcare services and neonatal mortality in Quang Ninh province. Subjects and method: Information on births and neonatal deaths between January and December 2005 in Quang Ninh province was collected. The perinatal care services including antenatal, delivery and post partum cares were described. The relationship between neonatal deaths and places of delivery was analyzed in order to uncover the risk of death in newborns delivered at home. Results: 76% of pregnant women received 3 or more antenatal care visits. More than 90% of deliveries took place at health facilities, of them, 16% occurred in community health stations. Only 49% of mothers received post partum care visits, with 82% of them received the visits in the first week after delivery. There were 17,519 births and 284 neonatal deaths in 2005. The neonatal mortality rate was lowest in cases born in community health stations (7.5/1.000) and highest in home birth cases (39/1.000). Conclusion: Further improvement in safe motherhood and neonatal survival can be achieved by increasing the accessibility of women to perinatal cares during pregnancy, delivery. \r\n', u'
perinatal care services ; neonatal mortality

Background: In past decades, Viet Nam achieved many accomplishments in maternal and child health care. However, these successes vary for each area in the country. Tay Nguyen is a high land and has many economic, social and health care difficulties. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge, practice of seeking out pregnancy, delivery and newborn care services of the ethnic minority women in four provinces in Tay Nguyen and to analyze the various factors related to health care behavior. Subjects and method: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data. The study included 768 women living in 8 communes of 4 provinces in Tay Nguyen (Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum). Results: 70% of pregnant women went to health facilities for antenatal care visits, but only 42% of them visited three or more times as recommended by the Ministry of Health. 19% of women thought that the antenatal care visits were unnecessary and 16% did not know about antenatal care. 64% of the deliveries occurred at home. Conclusion: Health education and communication in perinatal care need to be improved. It is important to bring health services to the communities to fill the gap in health care services for ethnic minority women.
Perinatal care ; women ; pregnancy ; health

Background: The RxBox 2 Model 2 is a portable device developed by the National TeleHealth Center capable of measuring various physiologic signals including fetal heart beat and uterine contractions, making it able to act as a cardiotocogram. The first model of the RxBox 2 was used in an observational cross-sectional study and was noted to have a low accuracy compared with the standard cardiotocogram. An adjustment was made with the objective of improving the sensitivity and specificity. Objective: The objective of this diagnostic cross-sectional study is to validate the RxBox 2 Model 2 by comparing its sensitivity and specificity with that of the standard cardiotocogram in detecting Category II traces. Results: The results of this study exhibited an improvement in the sensitivity (77% versus 60%) and specificity (71% versus 61%). In terms of accuracy, there is no significant difference between the high risk and non-high risk groups. These contribute to the validity of RxBox 2 Model 2 as an acceptable screening tool. Recommendation Further studies may still be done to improve the correlation of each component of the trace to that of the standard cardiotocogram. Detailed analysis of the interpretations with corresponding interventions and perinatal outcomes may aid in validating the device.
Telemedicine ; Perinatology ; Perinatal Care ; Maternal Health

PURPOSE: In Korea before 1996, the perinatal mortality rates (PMRs) were reported by individual studies, but the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare started official reports of PMRs from 1996, and Statistics Korea provides the annual official data since 2007. The present study observed the decreasing trends of PMR and compared the PMRs between OECD nations. Thereby, we surveyed the terminology of PMR and the international trends in the usage of the calculation methods and intended to provide uniformity in calculating PMR in Korea. Also, the authors speculated some perinatal problems to be improved in the future in order to decrease PMR further. METHODS: Data before 1996 were gathered from individual reports, and after 1996 were utilized from Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Statistics Korea. Data of OECD nations were analyzed from OECD Health Data 2010. The changes in annual PMR of Korea was reviewed, which is helpful to recognize the current state of Korea, and was compared to that of OECD nations. RESULTS: During the past 50 years, the PMRs of Korea were remarkably improved (PMRs: 60 in 1960s, 35 in 1970s, 30 in 1980s, approximately, respectively). The official PMR values of Korea are as following: 6.0 in 1996, 5.2 in 1999, 4.6 in 2002, 4.2 in 2005, 3.6 in 2006, 3.7 in 2007, 3.6 in 2008, and 3.4 in 2009. The decreasing pattern of the annual PMR value was observed and the most recent value reflected the excellent situation in PMR compared to other OECD nations. CONCLUSION: Accordingly, we could observe the encouraging levels of PMR in Korea. We speculate that following efforts should be accompanied to achieve further improvement in PMR, such as improvements in neonatal and maternity transfer system, establishment in perinatal care centers, and establishment in perinatal research network system in Korea.
Epidemiologic Methods ; Korea ; Perinatal Care ; Perinatal Mortality ; Public Health ; Vital Statistics

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the nursing needs of parturient women with those of nurses during the perinatal period. METHODS: The subjects of this study were in two groups, one of which was composed of 244 postpartum women (vaginal delivery) while the other was composed of 144 nurses. The data was collected using a self-report Questionnaire between July and November of 2007, and was analyzed using the SPSS Win12.0 program. RESULT: Statistically significant differences were found in nursing needs, specifically in the aspects of physical care, safety of delivery and newborn care between the nurse group and the parturient women group during the perinatal period. Furthermore, the nursing needs of parturient women were higher than those of nurses with regard to environmental needs, safety of delivery, newborn care, and especially among items such as routine examinations and the maintenance of hygiene during labor, as well as a desire for "kind and faithful" care. In addition, it was found that the nursing needs of parturient women in Women's hospitals were higher than those in University hospitals. CONCLUSION: This study showed that parturient women desire to be educated regarding Perinatal care for themselves and for their newborn.
Female ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Infant, Newborn ; Nursing Care ; Perinatal Care ; Postpartum Period ; Surveys and Questionnaires

In the current era of low-birth rate in Korea, it is important to improve our neonatal intensive care and to establish an integrative system including a regional care network adequate for both high-risk pregnancies and high-risk newborn infants. Therefore, official discussion for nation-wide augmentation, proper leveling, networking, and regionalization of neonatal and perinatal care is urgently needed. In this report, I describe the status of neonatal intensive care in Korea, as well as nationwide flow of transfer of high-risk newborn infants and pregnant women, and present a short review of the regionalization of neonatal and perinatal care in the Unites States and Japan. It is necessary not only to increase the number of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds, medical resources and manpower, but also to create a strong network system with appropriate leveling of NICUs and regionalization. A systematic approach toward perinatal care, that includes both high-risk pregnancies and newborns with continuous support from the government, is also needed, which can be spearheaded through the establishment of an integrative advisory board to propel systematic care forward.
Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Japan ; Korea ; Perinatal Care ; Pregnancy, High-Risk ; Pregnant Women

In the United States, The concept of designation for hospital facilities that care for newborn infants according to the level of complexity of care provided was first proposed in 1976. The extent of perinatal health care regionalization varies widely from one area to the other. facilities that provide hospital care for newborn are classified into three categories on the basis of functional capabilities; level I-primary or basic care, level II-secondary or specialty care, level III-tertially or subspecialty care. These facilities should be organized within a regionalized system of perinatal care. The transport system of newborn infants should be organized for referral of high risk newborn to centers with the personnel and resources needed for their degree of risk and severity of illness. In Korea, The korean society of neonatology was established and articulated in the 1994. During the past decade, the number of neonatologist has increased and neonatal intensive care units have proliferated in Korea. However, no standard definitions exist for the graded levels of complexity of care that neonatal intensive care units provide and no uniform guideline or recommendation for regionalization and referral system of high risk neonate have been established. With the rapid changing neonatal care system in Korea, the optimal neonatal care demands regionalization of care in utilization of manpower resources and in efficient use of advanced technology and facility.
Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Korea ; Neonatology ; Perinatal Care ; Referral and Consultation ; United States

Recent advance in perinatal care resulted in improved survival of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. However, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is still one of major complications of VLBW infants. Four decades have passed since BPD was described for the first time in 1967. Since then epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and pathophysiology of BPD have changed markedly. In this article, We reviewed the recent progress in research for epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and pathophysiology of BPD.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight ; Perinatal Care

Recent advances in perinatal care have resulted in improved survival of extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI). However, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains one of the major complications in ELBWI. BPD was originally described over 40 years ago; the clinical characteristics, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of BPD have changed markedly through this period. In this article, I have reviewed recent progress in research concerning the clinical presentation and characteristics, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of BPD.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Perinatal Care