Knowledge, practices and attitudes among bride well's adolescent girls toward reproductive health in Egypt

A descriptive study had been done at El Agosa bride well place. The aim of the study was to assess bride well's adolescent girl's reproductive health Knowledge, practices and explore their attitude toward reproductive health issues. It was hypothesized that bride well adolescents girls have both incorrect reproductive health Knowledge, practices, and negative attitude toward RH issues. The study started at the beginning of February 2008 and completed by the end of June 2008. All adolescent 78 adolescent girls with age 11-19 were involved in the study. The tools used for data collection were structured interviewing questionnaire and likert scale. Interviewing questionnaire consisted of three parts, the 1st part assessed demographic characteristics of girls, and the 2[nd] part assessed physiological changes of girls while the 3[rd] part assessed the reproductive health Knowledge and practices of the girls. While the likert scale was used to assess the girl's attitudes about the reproductive health issues. The results indicated that 67.6% of girls were circumcised and 60.5% of the girls exposed to sexual violence. While the majority of girls 94.4% have a positive attitude related to RH concept, A significant relationship was proved between the reproductive health knowledge and the age of girls. The study concluded that the majority of the studied adolescent's girls 90.1% in the bride well had incorrect knowledge related to the reproductive health issues, furthermore nobody of them performed breast self examination or received antenatal care and also there was a highly significant association between the knowledge and practice of reproductive health aspects by the adolescent's girls in the bride well. In the presence of these findings the research team recommended that health educational programs for improving girls' knowledge, and practice regarding to reproductive health issues

Cabbage compresses versus manual pumping in relieving breast engorgement

Aim: To study effect of cabbage compresses versus manual pumping in relieving breast engorgement

Study Question: Which is best in relieving breast engorgement cabbage compresses or manual pumping?

Justification: Breast engorgement is a common problem affecting many of women especially during early post partum period. It leads to breast pains that limit spontaneity of breast feeding a condition negatively impacting general well being of both mother and neonate. Some women find difficulty in using and tolerating manual breast pumping. Green Cabbage being cheep, natural and available in women houses was simply used to reduce swelling. Many of the published studies supported its value in reducing breast engorgement .So its validity compared to other commonly used methods as manual pump need to be objectively studied. A comparative, quasi-experimental study had been done at the fourth stage of labor ward and postnatal follow up clinic of Ain Shams Maternity University Hospital. Two hundred thirty nine women before being discharged from labor ward and fulfilling the study criteria were conveniently selected, and agreed to be included in the study. Inclusion criteria included, primepares, age between 20-35 years, can read and write, normally breast feed their normally delivered single, full term babies. Both women and babies were medically examined and identified as being free from any primary condition interfere with breast feeding process. Women were allocated according to their wishes to either using green cabbage compresses group [122 women] or manual pumping group [117 women] to relieve any engorgement affecting their breasts in the two weeks following their child birth. Women were followed for occurrence of breast engorgement and for practicing times per day, practicing minutes per time and period of using the selected relive method signs of being relived from engorgement by telephone contact and during postpartum follow up visits in out patient clinic. The following tools were used for data collection: Structured Interviewing Questionnaire, Engorgement scale, dairy, Visual Analogue Scale for breast pain assessment. Written instructions were given to women after individual teaching of preventative measures and either cabbage compresses or manual pump procedure. Pilot study had been done on 30 women, tools and data collection plane were modified according to its results and women included in the pilot were excluded from the study. Either Women or babies exposed to any condition interfere with breast feeding process during the study period were excluded

Results: proved that both methods are effective in reliving breast engorgement, however women used cabbage compresses were recovered faster than those used pumping with mean recovery days of 2.5 +/- 0.1, 3.5 +/- 0.4 day respectively, women satisfied with cabbage compresses represented 83.3%, this led to maximum exposure to the method as they were instructed, while satisfaction of women used manual pumping represented 30.8%. Women explained this limited percent by difficulty of its use and pain associated with practice that led to interrupted pumping manner. Daily progress in both methods was statistically significant, with more rapid progress percent among women used cabbage compresses. The progress days in both methods was dependent on the practicing times per day and practicing minutes per each time as an inverse correlation was proven between these variables, as the more practicing times and exposure minutes the less recovery days. Results thought light up importance of educating pregnant and laboring women about preventive and relive methods of breast engorgement that could be safely practiced at home. Limitations of the study included missing some women from the study as a result of their inaccurate registration to their phone number as well as ignoring post partum follow up visits. Also some women were excluded due to affection of their babies by conditions limited breast feeding process during the study period, these factors decreased sample size

Evaluation of the acetic acid visual inspection validity in comparison to pap smear in screening for cervical cancer and effect of counseling in promoting screening

The aim of this work was to evaluate the validity of acetic acid visual inspection as easy, cheap, cost-effective, cancer cervix-screening method compared with Pap smear screening test. Moreover, the study aimed to evaluate the effect of counseling on the women's awareness regarding cervical cancer and its early screening measures. A quasi experimental study was done at the Cancer Early Detection Unit in Ain Shams Maternity University Hospital. Data were collected for three days/week. A systematic random sample approach was used. The third of women attending for cervical cancer screening was included in the study. Those who already diagnosed pregnant or had cervical or genital cancer were excluded from the study. The number of women reached 660 women by the end of the year. Structured interviewing questionnaire sheet, attitude rating scale and a follow up card were used for data collection. A brochure containing counseling points was given to each woman after the counseling session. A pilot study was done and excluded from the results. Pap smear and acetic acid visual screening tests were done twice [at the initial screening visit and after six moths for negative cases supervised by the medical team]. The study concluded that acetic acid method was more sensitive than Pap smear. Also, counseling had positively affected the women's knowledge and attitudes