[Perceived needs of women regarding maternity. Qualitative study to redesign maternal education]. / Necesidades percibidas por las mujeres respecto a su maternidad. Estudio cualitativo para el rediseño de la educación maternal.

OBJECTIVES: To assess women's perceptions of their needs during the process of becoming a mother and identify what they want from maternal education. DESIGN: Qualitative study with focus groups. SETTING: Bizkaia health region, Basque Health Service (Osakidetza), Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty one women were recruited consecutively by midwives at six Osakidetza health centres. METHODS: Four sessions were held from September to November 2010 in Bizkaia (Spain), the four groups being stratified by socioeconomic status and stage of the process (pregnancy vs. postnatal period). To collate the information related to the various topics discussed, we used manifest content analysis that was facilitated by use of ATLAS.ti software. RESULTS: The focus of the women worries changes over time. In early pregnancy, women's main concern was for "everything to go well". As the pregnancy progressed, they needed more emotional support and wanted to feel confident and be self-reliant to face their fears of the birth and care for their child. They needed greater accompaniment in the puerperium and less pressure concerning breastfeeding. They also wanted an extended programme of perinatal rather than just antenatal education, which was more participatory and flexible and greater participation of their partner. CONCLUSION: Women have the same social and family networks needs, regardless of cultural differences between Anglo-Saxon and Southern European countries. We recommend an perinatal education to empower women to manage their own health and that of their family and link the health system with other networks of personal and social support for women.

[Comorbidity and multimorbidity indexes in the elderly patients]. / Índices de comorbilidad y multimorbilidad en el paciente anciano.

This article was written to reflect the importance of a correct quantification of the complexity of the elderly patient and its potential possibilities in clinical practice. From the decision to perform a laboratory test to the decision of the benefits of a determinate surgery through adjusting pathologies in several studies, most of our decisions depend on the complexity of our patients. Our decisions should be based on objective criteria that categorize the patients who may benefit from our decisions. One way is with comorbidity indexes. Another objective of this article was to review available methods to measure comorbidity and to assess its validity in the elderly. A search was made, with the keywords comorbidity, multi-morbidity and complexity associated with the elderly patient. The different methods were compared and different indexes are offered depending on our study's patients.