Nourodevelopmental follow-up in high-risk infants: Review article

Growing and developing are influenced by genetic, social and environmental factors and it's most important and initial phase step is formed of the early life of the fetus and infant. According to the world health organization, the incidence of preterm birth and low birth weight are increasing in most countries that most of it related to developing countries. Low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth are one the most important causes of death in the world and therefore are considered as one of the major health problems that can affect growing and developing so that it can threaten public health. Advances in medical technology in recent decades at intensive care unit, increased survival of premature infants and high-risk specialist care is needed, but failed, to reduce the complications of premature birth but it couldn’t reduce complications of preterm birth. There is also an increased recognition of the potential disconnect between perinatal outcomes and long-term outcomes. The administration of oxygen and postnatal steroids are prime examples of interventions that may have immediate positive effects but negative long-term effects. Many premature babies will be encounter with mobility problems, cognitive, neurosensory impairments, cerebral palsy, cognitive and language delays, neuromotor developmental delay, blindness and hearing loss, behavioral and psychosocial disorders, learning difficulties and dysfunction in scholastic performances in the future. These disadvantages appear to persist into adulthood and therefore have broad implications for society. Without a doubt, one of the tragedies of the world is people with physical or mental damage caused by premature birth, many of these disorders are not early diagnosed and the prediction of long term complications of infants discharged from the NICU is difficult. Although nourodevelopmental follow-up of these babies is a necessary part of the neonatal assessment but there is no standard process for it. The present review article aims to introduce the care process and tools that is used for following-up these babies, also introduces the application of screening tools for neuro-developmental care

Quality of Midwifery Care Provided to Women Admitted

AbstractBack ground and aim:  The World Health Organization emphasizes the evaluation of health services to improve quality of care. Because the main purpose of quality measurement is to identify the weaknesses of a program, this study aims to assess the quality of midwifery care provided to women admitted for delivery in selected hospitals of Yazd medical science university.Materials and methods:  A total number of 100 women randomly selected and were included in a cross-sectional study conducted in Yazd, Iran. Data were collected in the labor and delivery wards of Shaheed Sadoughi and Afshar hospitals, between September 2010 and February 2011. A valid and reliable observation check list was used for data collection. The validity of check list was accessed by content validity and the reliability was approved by computing spearman coefficient (0. 93). The check list included 247 items covered the 26 dimension of care across labor process. Observation was done by a midwife who was not practicing at the study sites, and was especially trained in study method. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16.Results:  The mean age of subjects was 24 / 43 ± 5/4 years. The Number of pregnancies of was 1 to 2 , in 64 percent of participants in the study. The results showed that the overall quality of midwifery care provided in different stages of labor, was not desirable. The highest scores of quality was related to midwife- mother communication and perennial repair, and the poorest score was related to vital sign control.Conclusion:  it is essential that the authorities plan to control the services provided by staff, Installation and implementation of treatment protocols of ministry of health, informing personnel duties and holding workshops to take steps to eliminate the existing shortcomings. The protocols should be translated into action with an enhanced collaboration among midwives, obstetrics and reproductive health programmers.Key Words: quality of care, labor, midwifery car