[Passive smoking during pregnancy and obstetric outcomes in pregnant women referring to Rafsanjan Nicknafs hospital]

Inhaling Environmental Tobacco Smoke [ETS], as a world health problem, threats the community especially mothers and newborns. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of passive tobacco smoking during pregnancy on mother and newborns. In this Cross sectional study, in one year, 641 non smoking women who refered to Rafsanjan Nicknafs hospital for bearing a singleton baby, were interviewed at least two hours after delivery using a structured check list. Based on history of exposure to ETS, the study samples were divided into two groups and then maternal and newborn outcomes in the two groups were compared. Exposure to ETS was reported among 25% [161] of respondents. The women exposed to ETS were less educated, multi gravid, had irregular prenatal care, older unemployed, lived in rural and in sum had low socio-economical status. They had higher rates of vaginal delivery [p=0.02], anemia [p=0.048] and preterm delivery [p=0.002]. But mother's exposure to ETS did not show any significant statistical relations with newborn weight, APGAR score, sex, anomaly and preeclampsia and the way of beginning the delivery Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in pregnancy probably increases the risk of preterm labor and maternal anemia

[Does fear of childbirth predict emergency cesarean section in primiparous women?]

Effect of women's psychological status on delivery processes is proven. Studies showed that women who experience severe anxiety were more vulnerable for getting emergency cesarean, and physical and psychological complications. Cesarean section is a surgery in which a lot of complications may occur. As primiparous women experience more fear than the other women and also delivery outcomes in first delivery affect later deliveries; this study aimed to study the relationship between fears from vaginal delivery with the occurrence of emergency cesarean in primiparous women. In this cross-sectional study, 243 primiparous women were recruited randomly from Nicknafs hospital during a six months period in 2004. Data were gathered through face-to-face interviewing with the respondents using a structured questionnaire. This questionnaire was included demographic information, reasons for fear from vaginal delivery, and method of delivery. Data were analyzed using ?2 test in SPSS. Seven percent of the respondents stated that they did not fear from Normal Vaginal Delivery [NVD]. Most of the respondents [44.4%] reported that they slightly fear from NVD and 26.3% said that they fear much from vaginal delivery. A relatively high percent of women [22.3%] stated that they extremely fear from NVD. The most mentioned reasons by the women for fear were pain [68/3%], and fetal injury [30%]. There was a significant relationship between fear and method of delivery [P < 0.001]. It is essential that midwives consider the fear from NVD in their routine cares

[Preference method of delivery and it's relevant causes in view of pregnant women referring to public and private clinics in Rafsanjan city]

While it's widely accepted that vaginal delivery is the best method of parturition, in most countries the cesarean rate has been growing over the past decades and in most cases it's performed only based on the women demand. Finding the reasons of women's tendency toward cesarean may help to diminsh the rate of this delivery method. Therefor in the present study we tried to investigate the preference method of delivery and its relevant causes in view of pregnant women referring to public and private clinics in Rafsanjan. In this cross-sectional study, 256 pregnant women were continuously interviewed and their method of choice for delivery and their reasons were also investigated using a qustionnaire. Data were analyzed by t test, one way Analysis of Variance and X[2] test. The results showed that 31.25% and 68.75% of the participants choose Cesarean Section [C/S] and Normal Vaginal Delivery [NVD] respectively as a method of choice for parturition. 52.6% of those who have chosen C/S, believed that NVD is a painful and stressful method which cannot be tolerated whereas 42% of the second group believed C/S could be a high-risk and invasive method. Of the knowledge qustions, 45.5% were correctly answered by the participants. The most important reasons for choosing C/S among the participants were fear of severe pain during vaginal delivery and lack of knowledge about the complications of cesarean. In addition, it should be important for the health - policy makers to develop an awareness concerning the C/S complications and the advantages of NVD. Applying of pharmaceutical and non - pharmaceutial pain-relief methods may also change the attitude of women in favour of NVD

[ effect of Ramadan fasting on psychological health and depression in Sirjan Azad university students [2004]]

Fasting improves both spiritual and physical aspects of individual's performance. In other words, fasting has many advantages in improving human health and elimination of abnormal behavior. In general, the advantages of fasting include psychological, physical and spiritual benefits. In this study, the effect of Ramadan fasting on psychological health and depression among university students has been evaluated. Three hundred and sixty one students were randomly selected and their demographic information was collected. Psychological health and depression scores were examined by Ferrell 12-item scale and standard Beck depression test, respectively. The data were collected in two different occasions 10 days before and 10 days after Ramadan. Mean scores of psychological health and depression of students in these two occasions were compared. The mean score of psychological health of participants before Ramadan was 33.94 +/- 8.55 [Mean +/- SE] that increased to 34.5 +/- 8.2 after Ramadan. Mean score of depression before Ramadan was 14.45 +/- 10.33 that decreased to 11.88 +/- 10.38 after Ramadan. These differences were statistically significant. Our findings confirmed that Ramadan fasting could be an important factor for improving mental health and elimination of depression in university students