ABSTRACT
Background: Smoking amongst women is increasing in the developing countries like India. There is paucity of data on the knowledge, attitude and practices of smoking amongst females in India. Hence a study was planned to assess the same.Methods: It was a qualitative research using descriptive questionnaire, prepared using the basic protocols available as per WHO Global Adult Tobacco Survey, conducted by self-reporting, from February to March, 2018 in the University Institute of Applied Management Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh. It was administered to 111 females aged 18 to 35 years, residing in Chandigarh.Results: Total22.5% of the female respondents were current smokers. Majority of them belonged to the age group of 26-35years; were either employed or were studying and felt that females resorted to smoking for gaining pleasure and relieving stress. Most of them were aware of passive smoking. Majority felt that people who smoke should quit for their own health and for their families and street plays, public awareness camps, television and cinema halls are important mediums for helping to quit. Will power be found to be most important to help smokers quit. Some quoted the role of nicotine replacement therapy, exercise, individual counseling etc also. Majority of the females started smoking early, at an age of 16-25years, consuming 1-10cigarettes per day and had been smoking since more than a year when interviewed. Smoking was primarily introduced by peers. All the smokers were aware of different types of smoking hazards, most commonly reported as cancer and asthma. 16/25 smokers wanted to quit and 14/16 had tried in the past but were unsuccessful.Conclusions: This study gives an indication of rising smoking trend in females. Smoking cessation measures need to be made more gender-sensitive, targeting females in their early ages.
ABSTRACT
Background: Globally and especially in the under developing nations Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH) is the most common cause of maternal mortality. All women who deliver are at risk of complications of third stage of labor. Multiple researches have been done to compare active vs expectant management of third stage of labor. Placental Cord Drainage (PCD), one of the active method for control of third stage of labor, incudes opening of clamp from mother’s side of umbilical cord thereby allowing the blood from placenta to flow freely immediately after clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord. Aim: Thus, the following study was conducted to assess the effect of PCD via umbilical cord in decreasing the time period of third stage of labor and incidence of PPH. Materials and Methods: This hospital based comparative study was conducted in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Jaipur. A total of 300 consecutive patients with term pregnancy (>37 weeks) fulfilling the inclusion criteria were taken after informed consent. These were divided into two groups of 150 cases each, study group (PCD group) and control group. The various parameters like blood loss, need for transfusion, duration of third stage of labor, manual removal of placenta, hospital stay, secondary PPH (after 24 hours and before 6 weeks) were noted for every female. Statistical analysis was done using t-test for quantitative data, nonparametric data was analyzed by Mann Whitney test and categorical data was analyzed using chisquare test. The significance threshold of p-value was set at <0.05. All analysis was carried out by using SPSS software version 21. Results: Average blood loss was significantly less in subjects of drainage group as compared to control group (273.8 ml vs 391.2 ml; p<0.05). Also, average duration of third stage of labor was significantly less in drainage group (4.1 vs 7.7 mins; p<0.05). No difference was observed between two groups based on placenta weight (p-0.121). Conclusion: In the present study, PCD had a beneficial effect on the duration of third stage of labor and on postpartum blood loss. Thus, use of PCD is recommended in active management of labor by trained professionals