Analysis of the structural adequacy of maternity hospitals in Piauí, Brazil, 2018-2019 / Análise da adequação estrutural das maternidades do Piauí, Brasil, 2018-2019

Abstract Objectives: to evaluate the structure and adequacy of maternal healthcare facilities in Piauí. Methods: cross-sectional study in 26 hospitals with more than 200 births/year between 2018-2019. The structure was assessed by direct observation and interview with manager, in four domains: physical aspects, human resources, equipment, and drugs. Fisher's chi-square/exact tests were used to assess differences in adequacy of structure. Results: only 46.2% of the maternal healthcare facilities had pre-delivery, parturition and immediate post-partum room. Pediatricians (73.1%) and anesthesiologists (61.5%) were the least present professionals on-duty regime. Regarding drugs, magnesium sulfate and oxytocin were observed in 76.9% of hospitals. Overall adequacy was 23.1%, being higher in maternal healthcare facilities in the capital (p=0.034) and in private ones (p=0.031). Conclusions: Data show inequalities in the structure of maternity hospitals of the state. The absence of health professionals, essential drugs, and appropriate physical structure can expose women and newborns to unnecessary and avoidable risks.

Resumo Objetivos: avaliar a estrutura e adequação das maternidades do Piauí. Métodos: estudo transversal em 26 hospitais com mais de 200 partos/ano entre 2018 e 2019. A estrutura foi avaliada por observação direta e entrevista com gestor, em quatro domínios: aspectos físicos, recursos humanos, equipamentos e medicamentos. Foram empregados os testes do quiquadrado/exato de Fisher para avaliar diferenças na adequação da estrutura. Resultados: apenas 46,2% das maternidades tinham quarto pré-parto, parto e puerpério. Pediatras (73,1%) e anestesistas (61,5%) foram os profissionais menos presentes em regime de plantão. Dos medicamentes, sulfato de magnésio e ocitocina foram observados em 76,9% dos hospitais. A adequação global foi de 23,1%, sendo maior em maternidades da capital (p=0,034) e privadas (p=0,031) Conclusões: os dados exibem desigualdades na estrutura das maternidades do estado. A ausência de profissionais de saúde, medicamentos essenciais e estrutura física apropriada pode expor mulheres e recém-nascidos a riscos desnecessários e evitáveis.

A birth population-based survey of preterm morbidity and mortality by gestational age.

BACKGROUND: Despite 15-17 millions of annual births in China, there is a paucity of information on prevalence and outcome of preterm birth. We characterized the outcome of preterm births and hospitalized preterm infants by gestational age (GA) in Huai'an in 2015, an emerging prefectural region of China. METHODS: Of 59,245 regional total births, clinical data on 2651 preterm births and 1941 hospitalized preterm neonates were extracted from Huai'an Women and Children's Hospital (HWCH) and non-HWCH hospitals in 2018-2020. Preterm prevalence, morbidity and mortality rates were characterized and compared by hospital categories and GA spectra. Death risks of preterm births and hospitalized preterm infants in the whole region were analyzed with multivariable Poisson regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of extreme, very, moderate, late and total preterm of the regional total births were 0.14, 0.53, 0.72, 3.08 and 4.47%, with GA-specific neonatal mortality rates being 44.4, 15.8, 3.7, 1.5 and 4.3%, respectively. There were 1025 (52.8% of whole region) preterm admissions in HWCH, with significantly lower in-hospital death rate of inborn (33 of 802, 4.1%) than out-born (23 of 223, 10.3%) infants. Compared to non-HWCH, three-fold more neonates in HWCH were under critical care with higher death rate, including most extremely preterm infants. Significantly all-death risks were found for the total preterm births in birth weight <  1000 g, GA < 32 weeks, amniotic fluid contamination, Apgar-5 min < 7, and birth defects. For the hospitalized preterm infants, significantly in-hospital death risks were found in out-born of HWCH, GA < 32 weeks, birth weight <  1000 g, Apgar-5 min < 7, birth defects, respiratory distress syndrome, necrotizing enterocolitis and ventilation, whereas born in HWCH, antenatal glucocorticoids, cesarean delivery and surfactant use decreased the death risks. CONCLUSIONS: The integrated data revealed the prevalence, GA-specific morbidity and mortality rate of total preterm births and their hospitalization, demonstrating the efficiency of leading referral center and whole regional perinatal-neonatal network in China. The concept and protocol should be validated in further studies for prevention of preterm birth.

Cost-Utility of Intermediate Obstetric Critical Care in a Resource-Limited Setting: A Value-Based Analysis.

Background: Sierra Leone faces among the highest maternal mortality rates worldwide. Despite this burden, the role of life-saving critical care interventions in low-resource settings remains scarcely explored. A value-based approach may be used to question whether it is sustainable and useful to start and run an obstetric intermediate critical care facility in a resource-poor referral hospital. We also aimed to investigate whether patient outcomes in terms of quality of life justified the allocated resources. Objective: To explore the value-based dimension performing a cost-utility analysis with regard to the implementation and one-year operation of the HDU. The primary endopoint was the quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) of patients admitted to the HDU, against direct and indirect costs. Secondary endpoints included key procedures or treatments performed during the HDU stay. Methods: The study was conducted from October 2, 2017 to October 1, 2018 in the obstetric high dependency unit (HDU) of Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Findings: 523 patients (median age 25 years, IQR 21-30) were admitted to HDU. The total 1 year investment and operation costs for the HDU amounted to €120,082 - resulting in €230 of extra cost per admitted patient. The overall cost per QALY gained was of €10; this value is much lower than the WHO threshold defining high cost effectiveness of an intervention, i.e. three times the current Sierra Leone annual per capita GDP of €1416. Conclusion: With an additional cost per QALY of only €10.0, the implementation and one-year running of the case studied obstetric HDU can be considered a highly cost-effective frugal innovation in limited resource contexts. The evidences provided by this study allow a precise and novel insight to policy makers and clinicians useful to prioritize interventions in critical care and thus address maternal mortality in a high burden scenario.

COVID-19 Obstetrics Task Force, Lombardy, Italy: Executive management summary and short report of outcome.

From February 24, 2020, a COVID-19 obstetric task force was structured to deliver management recommendations for obstetric care. From March 1, 2020, six COVID-19 hubs and their spokes were designated. An interim analysis of cases occurring in or transferred to these hubs was performed on March 20, 2020 and recommendations were released on March 24, 2020. The vision of this strict organization was to centralize patients in high-risk maternity centers in order to concentrate human resources and personal protective equipment (PPE), dedicate protected areas of these major hospitals, and centralize clinical multidisciplinary experience with this disease. All maternity hospitals were informed to provide a protected labor and delivery room for nontransferable patients in advanced labor. A pre-triage based on temperature and 14 other items was developed in order to screen suspected patients in all hospitals to be tested with nasopharyngeal swabs. Obstetric outpatient facilities were instructed to maintain scheduled pregnancy screening as per Italian guidelines, and to provide pre-triage screening and surgical masks for personnel and patients for pre-triage-negative patients. Forty-two cases were recorded in the first 20 days of hub and spoke organization. The clinical presentation was interstitial pneumonia in 20 women. Of these, seven required respiratory support and eventually recovered. Two premature labors occurred.

Efficiency of health resource utilisation in primary-level maternal and child health hospitals in Shanxi Province, China: a bootstrapping data envelopment analysis and truncated regression approach.

BACKGROUND: District- and county-level maternal and child health hospitals (MCHHs) are positioned to provide primary maternal and child healthcare in rural and urban areas of China. Their efficiencies and productivity largely affect the equity and accessibility of maternal and child health care. This study aimed to assess the efficiency of district- and county-level MCHHs in China and identify their associated factors. METHODS: Thirty-three district- and 84 county-level MCHHs were selected from Shanxi Province in 2017. At the first stage, bootstrapping data envelopment analysis (DEA) models were established to calculate the technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) of district- and county-level hospitals. At the second stage, the estimated efficiency scores were regressed against external and internal hospital environmental factors by using bootstrap truncated regression to identify their determinants. RESULTS: The average TE, PTE and SE scores for district-level MCHHs were 0.7433, 0.8633 and 0.9335, respectively. All hospitals were found to be weakly efficient, although more than 50% of the hospitals performed with efficient SE (SE scores≥100%). As for county-level MCHHs, their average TE, PTE and SE scores were 0.5483, 0.6081 and 0.9329, respectively. The hospitals with TE and PTE scores less than 0.7 accounted for more than 60%, and no hospital was observed to operate effectively. Truncated regressions suggested that the proportion of health professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, inspection technician and image technician (district level: ß = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.30-0.85; county level: ß = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.15-0.52), and the number of health workers who received job training (district level: ß = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.26-1.08; county level: ß = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.14-0.54) had a positive association with efficiency scores. The amount of financial subsidy (ß = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.05-0.09) was found to be directly proportional to the productive efficiency of the county-level MCHHs. CONCLUSION: The operational inefficiency of district- and county-level MCHHs in Shanxi Province is severe and needs to be substantially improved, especially in terms of TE and PTE. Hiring additional medical personnel and ensuring the stability of the workforce should be prioritised. The Chinese government must provide sufficient financial subsidy to compensate for service costs.

Maternal factors associated with prematurity in public maternity hospitals at the Brazilian Western Amazon.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse maternal factors associated with prematurity in public maternity hospitals. DESIGN: Retrospective unmatched case-control study on two public maternity hospitals in the State of Acre, Brazil. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 341 newborn infants of premature birth (< 37 weeks; case group) and 388 newborn infants of term delivery (≥ 37 weeks; control group). METHODS: A validated instrument was used for interviews, and information was collected from hospital records. The variables were divided into five blocks: (1) maternal sociodemographic and economic characteristics, (2) maternal biological and reproductive characteristics, (3) maternal habits, (4) pregnancy complications, and (5) neonatal characteristics. The hierarchical analysis was performed using multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The risk factors associated with premature birth were as follows: newborn infants of mothers who were born premature (p = 0.005), with low BMI (p = 0.006), history of a previous preterm child (p<0.003), who had stress (p = 0.020) and physical injury during pregnancy (p = 0.025), with quality of prenatal care classified as inadequate II (p = 0.001), which presented abnormal amniotic fluid volume (p<0.001), pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (p<0.001), bleeding (p = 0.013) and hospitalization during pregnancy (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The variables that were associated with premature birth were mother born preterm, low BMI, previous premature child, stress and physical injury during pregnancy, prenatal care inadequate II, bleeding, abnormal amniotic fluid volume, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and hospitalization during pregnancy. It is important to properly perform prenatal care, having a multidisciplinary approach as support, with the objective of keep up with changes in nutritional classification and monitoring of adverse clinical conditions.

Obstetric care navigation: results of a quality improvement project to provide accompaniment to women for facility-based maternity care in rural Guatemala.

BACKGROUND: Many maternal and perinatal deaths in low-resource settings are preventable. Inadequate access to timely, quality care in maternity facilities drives poor outcomes, especially where women deliver at home with traditional birth attendants (TBA). Yet few solutions exist to support TBA-initiated referrals or address reasons patients frequently refuse facility care, such as disrespectful and abusive treatment. We hypothesised that deploying accompaniers-obstetric care navigators (OCN)-trained to provide integrated patient support would facilitate referrals from TBAs to public hospitals. METHODS: This project built on an existing collaboration with 41 TBAs who serve indigenous Maya villages in Guatemala's Western Highlands, which provided baseline data for comparison. When TBAs detected pregnancy complications, families were offered OCN referral support. Implementation was guided by bimonthly meetings of the interdisciplinary quality improvement team where the OCN role was iteratively tailored. The primary process outcomes were referral volume, proportion of births receiving facility referral, and referral success rate, which were analysed using statistical process control methods. RESULTS: Over the 12-month pilot, TBAs attended 847 births. The median referral volume rose from 14 to 27.5, meeting criteria for special cause variation, without a decline in success rate. The proportion of births receiving facility-level care increased from 24±6% to 62±20% after OCN implementation. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and prolonged labour were the most common referral indications. The OCN role evolved to include a number of tasks, such as expediting emergency transportation and providing doula-like labour support. CONCLUSIONS: OCN accompaniment increased the proportion of births under TBA care that received facility-level obstetric care. Results from this of obstetric care navigation suggest it is a feasible, patient-centred intervention to improve maternity care.

Length of stay following vaginal deliveries: A population based study in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (North-Eastern Italy), 2005-2015.

BACKGROUND: Lengths of hospital stay (LoS) after childbirth that are too long have a number of health, social and economic drawbacks. For this reason, in several high-income countries LoS has been reduced over the past decades and early discharge (ED) is increasingly applied to low-risk mothers and newborns. METHODS: We conducted a population-based study investigating LoS after chilbirth across all 12 maternity centres of Friuli Venezia-Giulia (FVG), North-Eastern Italy, using a database capturing all registered births in the region from 2005 to 2015 (11 years). Adjusting for clinical factors (clinical conditions of the mother and the newborn), socio-demographic bakground and obstetric history with multivariable logistic regression, we ranked facility centres for LoS that were longer than our proposed ED benchmarks (defined as >2 days for spontaneous vaginal deliveries and >3 days for instrumental vaginal deliveries). The reference was hospital A, a national excellence centre for maternal and child health. RESULTS: The total number of births examined in our database was 109,550, of which 109,257 occurred in hospitals. During these 11 years, the number of births significantly diminished over time, and the pooled mean LoS for spontaneous vaginal deliveries in the whole FVG was 2.9 days. There was a significantly decreasing trend in the proportion of women remaining admitted more than the respective ED cutoffs for both delivery modes. The percentage of women staying longer that the ED benchmarks varied extensively by facility centre, ranging from 32% to 97% for spontaneous vaginal deliveries and 15% to 64% for instrumental vaginal deliveries. All hospitals but G were by far more likely to surpass the ED cutoff for spontaneous deliveries. As compared with hospital A, the most significant adjusted ORs for LoS overcoming the ED thresholds for spontaneous vaginal deliveries were: 89.38 (78.49-101.78); 26.47 (22.35-31.36); 10.42 (9.49-11.44); 10.30 (9.45-11.21) and 8.40 (7.68-9.19) for centres B, D, I, K and E respectively. By contrast the OR was 0.77 (95%CI: 0.72-0.83) for centre G. Similar mitigated patterns were observed also for instrumental vaginal deliveiries. CONCLUSIONS: For spontaneous vaginal deliveries the mean LoS in the whole FVG was shorter than 3.4 days, the average figure most recently reported for the whole of Italy, but higher than other countries' with health systems similar to Italy's. Since our results are controlled for the effect of all other factors, the between-hospital variability we found is likely attributable to the health care provider itself. It can be argued that some maternity centres of FVG may have had ecocomic interest in longer LoS after childbirth, although fear of medico-legal backlashes, internal organizational malfunctions of hospitals and scarce attention of ward staff on performance efficiency shall not be ruled out. It would be therefore important to ensure higher level of coordination between the various maternity services of FVG, which should follow standardized protocols to pursue efficiency of care and allow comparability of health outcomes and costs among them. Improving the performance of FVG and Italian hospitals requires investment in primary care services.

Parallel worlds: An ethnography of care in an Afghan maternity hospital.

Aspirations of quality, equitable and respectful care for all women in childbirth have, so far, been unrealised. Sub-optimal care remains the norm in many settings despite decades of substantial investment, the introduction of evidence-based policies, procedures and training programmes. Improving the standard of facility-based care for childbearing women in Afghanistan is an example. This ethnography of a large public Afghan maternity hospital explored the experiences, motivations and constraints of healthcare providers. The aim was to identify barriers and facilitators in the delivery of care. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions were used to gather diverse perspectives on childbirth and care between 2010 and 2012. The influences of the sociocultural setting and political economy on facility-based care are discussed in this paper. Under the surface of this maternity hospital, social norms were in conflict with the principles of biomedicine. Contested areas included the control of knowledge, equity and the primary goal of work. The institutional culture was further complicated by pressure from powerful elites. These unseen values and pressures explain much of the disconnection between policy and implementation, education and the everyday behaviours of healthcare providers. Improving the quality of care and equity in Afghan public maternity hospitals will require political will from all stakeholders to acknowledge these issues and find culturally attuned ways to address them. Furthermore, the notion of competing world-views on healthcare has relevance beyond Afghanistan.

A Statewide Quality Improvement Collaborative to Increase Breastfeeding Rates in Tennessee.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Tennessee has low breastfeeding rates and has identified opportunities for improvement to enhance maternity practices to support breastfeeding mothers. We sought a 10% relative increase in the aggregate Joint Commission measure of breastfeeding exclusivity at discharge (TJC PC-05) by focusing on high-reliability (≥90%) implementation of processes that promote breastfeeding in the delivery setting. METHODS: A statewide, multidisciplinary development team reviewed evidence from the WHO-UNICEF "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding" to create a consensus toolkit of process indicators aligned with the Ten Steps. Hospitals submitted monthly TJC PC-05 data for 6 months while studying local implementation of the Ten Steps to identify improvement opportunities, and for an additional 11 months while conducting tests of change to improve Ten Steps implementation using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, local process audits, and control charts. Data were aggregated at the state level and presented at 12 monthly webinars, 3 regional learning sessions, and 1 statewide meeting where teams shared their local data and implementation experiences. RESULTS: Thirteen hospitals accounting for 47% of live births in Tennessee submitted data on 31,183 mother-infant dyads from August 1, 2012, to December 31, 2013. Aggregate monthly mean PC-05 demonstrated "special cause" improvement increasing from 37.1% to 41.2%, an 11.1% relative increase. Five hospitals reported implementation of ≥5 of the Ten Steps and two hospitals reported ≥90% reliability on ≥5 of the Ten Steps using locally designed process audits. CONCLUSION: Using large-scale improvement methodology, a successful statewide collaborative led to >10% relative increase in breastfeeding exclusivity at discharge in participating Tennessee hospitals. Further opportunities for improvement in implementing breastfeeding supportive practices were identified.

Baby-friendly hospital practices are associated with duration of full breastfeeding in primiparous but not multiparous Iranian women.

There is evidence that the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) results in improved breastfeeding outcomes in Western countries, but little is known of its impact in Middle-Eastern countries. This study investigated the impact of BFHI practices on duration of full breastfeeding in a cohort of 700 Iranian mothers recruited between June 2014 and March 2015 from maternity hospitals in Shiraz and followed-up prospectively for 6 months. At baseline, mothers self-reported exposure to 7 of the BFHI Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (Steps 3 to 9). Data on breastfeeding outcomes were collected at baseline, 1, 3, 4, and 6 months postpartum. Cox regression analysis was conducted to determine the impact of individual and cumulative BFHI Steps on the duration of full breastfeeding, defined as the number of weeks since discharge that an infant received only breast milk and no complementary formula or food. Mothers reported experiencing on average 3.9 (SD 1.13, range 1 to 7) Steps, and only 28% of infants were fully breastfed at 6 months. There was a protective inverse relationship for primiparous (p for trend = .022) but not multiparous mothers (p for trend = .069), between the number of Steps a woman was exposed to and the likelihood of her discontinuing full breastfeeding within 6 months postpartum. Greater exposure to BFHI practices potentially could increase primiparous mothers' chances of fully breastfeeding to 6 months. Continual monitoring of the BFHI Steps and repeated education of healthcare staff are required to ensure that Iranian mothers receive adequate breastfeeding support.

Competing Values Framework: A useful tool to define the predominant culture in a maternity setting in Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the predominant culture of an organisation which could then assess readiness for change. DESIGN: An exploratory design using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) as a self-administered survey tool. SETTING: The Maternity Unit in one Australian metropolitan tertiary referral hospital. SUBJECTS: All 120 clinicians (100 midwives and 20 obstetricians) employed in the maternity service were invited to participate; 26% responded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The identification of the predominant culture of an organisation to assess readiness for change prior to the implementation of a new policy. RESULTS: The predominant culture of this maternity unit, as described by those who responded to the survey, was one of hierarchy with a focus on rules and regulations and less focus on innovation, flexibility and teamwork. These results suggest that this unit did not have readiness to change. CONCLUSION: There is value in undertaking preparatory work to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of an organisation prior to designing and implementing change. This understanding can influence additional preliminary work that may be required to increase the readiness for change and therefore increase the opportunity for successful change. The CVF is a useful tool to identify the predominant culture and characteristics of an organisation that could influence the success of change.

Bringing Baby-Friendly to the Indian Health Service: A Systemwide Approach to Implementation.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) increases exclusive breastfeeding. Breastfeeding protects against obesity and diabetes, conditions to which American Indians and Alaska Natives are particularly prone. As part of the First Lady'sLet's Move! in Indian Countryinitiative, the US Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service (IHS) began implementing the BFHI in 2011. The IHS administers 13 US birthing hospitals. There are 5 tribally administered hospitals in the lower 48 states that receive IHS funding, and the IHS encouraged them to seek Baby-Friendly designation also. In the 13 federally administered hospitals, the IHS implemented a Baby-Friendly infant feeding policy, extensive clinician training, and Baby-Friendly compatible medical records. All hospitals also became compliant with the World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes. Strategies and solutions were shared systemwide via webinars and conference calls. Quality improvement methods, technical assistance, and site visits assisted with the implementation process. Between 2011 and December 2014, 100% (13 of 13) of IHS federally administered hospitals gained Baby-Friendly designation. The first Baby-Friendly hospitals in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota were all IHS sites; 6% of all US Baby-Friendly hospitals are currently IHS hospitals. One tribal site has also been Baby-Friendly designated and 3 of the 5 remaining tribally administered hospitals in the lower 48 states are pursuing Baby-Friendly status. Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative implementation systemwide is possible in a US government agency serving a high-risk, underprivileged population. Other systems looking to implement the BFHI can learn from the IHS model.

Network for Surveillance of Severe Maternal Morbidity: a powerful national collaboration generating data on maternal health outcomes and care.

OBJECTIVE: To identify cases of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) during pregnancy and childbirth, their characteristics, and to test the feasibility of scaling up World Health Organization criteria for identifying women at risk of a worse outcome. DESIGN: Multicentre cross-sectional study. SETTING: Twenty-seven referral maternity hospitals from all regions of Brazil. POPULATION: Cases of SMM identified among 82 388 delivering women over a 1-year period. METHODS: Prospective surveillance using the World Health Organization's criteria for potentially life-threatening conditions (PLTC) and maternal near-miss (MNM) identified and assessed cases with severe morbidity or death. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Indicators of maternal morbidity and mortality; sociodemographic, clinical and obstetric characteristics; gestational and perinatal outcomes; main causes of morbidity and delays in care. RESULTS: Among 9555 cases of SMM, there were 140 deaths and 770 cases of MNM. The main determining cause of maternal complication was hypertensive disease. Criteria for MNM conditions were more frequent as the severity of the outcome increased, all combined in over 75% of maternal deaths. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified around 9.5% of MNM or death among all cases developing any severe maternal complication. Multicentre studies on surveillance of SMM, with organised collaboration and adequate study protocols can be successfully implemented, even in low-income and middle-income settings, generating important information on maternal health and care to be used to implement appropriate health policies and interventions. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Surveillance of severe maternal morbidity was proved to be possible in a hospital network in Brazil.

Levels of maternal care.

In the 1970s, studies demonstrated that timely access to risk-appropriate neonatal and obstetric care could reduce perinatal mortality. Since the publication of the Toward Improving the Outcome of Pregnancy report, more than 3 decades ago, the conceptual framework of regionalization of care of the woman and the newborn has been gradually separated with recent focus almost entirely on the newborn. In this current document, maternal care refers to all aspects of antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum care of the pregnant woman. The proposed classification system for levels of maternal care pertains to birth centers, basic care (level I), specialty care (level II), subspecialty care (level III), and regional perinatal health care centers (level IV). The goal of regionalized maternal care is for pregnant women at high risk to receive care in facilities that are prepared to provide the required level of specialized care, thereby reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States.

[Perinatal mortality and quality of clinical management in the Aurore network from 2005 to 2011. Implementation of morbidity and mortality conferences]. / Mortalité périnatale et qualité des prises en charge au sein du réseau Aurore de 2005 à 2011. Mise en place des réunions de morbi-mortalité au sein du réseau.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the incidence of perinatal mortality and evaluate the percentage of non optimal care management of fatal pregnancies between 2005 and 2011 in the Rhone-Alpes region in France, by the use of the Aurore network. Evaluate the development of morbi-mortality revues (MMR) in this region. METHODS: Retrospective study of perinatal mortality in the Aurore network, from 2005 to 2011. Systematic analysis of care management (adapted, non adapted, non evaluable), of each perinatal death that occurred in the Aurore network, by a multidisciplinary committee during regional MMR. RESULTS: The incidence of perinatal mortality has diminished from 2005 to 2011 (8,4‰ vs. 6,4‰, P<0.07) as well as the percentage of non adapted care management (13% vs. 5,6%, P<0.001). An underestimation of irregularities in the fetal heart rate was described in 34% of per partum deaths. The percentage of optimal care management was significantly higher when the obstetrician was in the maternity rather than on call at home (P<0.03) and in type 3 maternities compared to type 1 and 2 maternities (P<0.04). The attendance of the MMR organized in the AURORE network progressed between 2006 and 2011. CONCLUSION: Since 2005, a decrease in perinatal mortality and in non-adapted care management was observed. More studies are necessary to evaluate the link between the development of MMR in this network and the amelioration of these two indicators.

Is baby-friendly breastfeeding support in maternity hospitals associated with breastfeeding satisfaction among Japanese mothers?

While the World Health Organization's Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has increased breastfeeding duration and exclusivity, a survey found that only 8.5 % of maternity hospitals in 31 developed countries could be designated baby-friendly. Baby-friendly breastfeeding support is sometimes criticized as mother unfriendly. This study examined whether baby-friendly breastfeeding support was associated with breastfeeding satisfaction, duration, and exclusivity among Japanese mothers. In this cross-sectional study, 601 breastfeeding Japanese mothers completed questionnaires at their infants' 4-month health checkups at two wards in Yokohama, Japan; 363 were included in the analysis. Baby-friendly breastfeeding support was measured based on the WHO's "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding." We measured satisfaction using two subscales of the Japanese version of the Maternal Breastfeeding Evaluation Scale. The association of baby-friendly support with maternal satisfaction was assessed using multiple linear regression, while the prevalence ratios (PRs) for breastfeeding were estimated using Poisson regression. Mothers were stratified by prepartum exclusive breastfeeding intention (yes, n = 256; no, n = 107). Mothers who experienced early skin-to-skin contact with their infants were more likely to report breastfeeding satisfaction than those who did not. Among mothers without exclusive breastfeeding intention, those who were encouraged to feed on demand were more likely to be breastfeeding without formula at 1 month (PR 2.66 [95 % CI 1.32, 5.36]) and to perceive breastfeeding as beneficial for their baby (regression coefficient = 3.14 [95 % CI 0.11, 6.17]) than those who were not so encouraged. Breastfeeding satisfaction was a useful measure of breastfeeding outcome. Early skin-to-skin contact and encouragement to feed on demand in the hospital facilitate breastfeeding satisfaction.

Understanding Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the culture of a Kabul maternity hospital to understand the perspectives of healthcare providers on their roles, experiences, values and motivations and the impact of these determinants on the care of perinatal women and their babies. DESIGN: Qualitative ethnographic study. SETTING: A maternity hospital, Afghanistan. POPULATION: Doctors, midwives and care assistants. METHODS: Six weeks of observation followed by 22 semi-structured interviews and four informal group discussions with staff, two focus group discussions with women and 41 background interviews with Afghan and non-Afghan medical and cultural experts. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The culture of care in an Afghan maternity hospital. RESULTS: A large workload, high proportion of complicated cases and poor staff organisation affected the quality of care. Cultural values, social and family pressures influenced the motivation and priorities of healthcare providers. Nepotism and cronyism created inequality in clinical training and support and undermined the authority of management to improve standards of care. Staff without powerful connections were vulnerable in a punitive inequitable environment-fearing humiliation, blame and the loss of employment. CONCLUSIONS: Suboptimal care put the lives of women and babies at risk and was, in part, the result of conflicting priorities. The underlying motivation of staff appeared to be the socio-economic survival of their own families. The hospital culture closely mirrored the culture and core values of Afghan society. In setting priorities for women's health post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, understanding the context-specific pressures on staff is key to more effective programme interventions and sustainability.