View clinical trials related to Pregnancy.
Filter by:Argentina and Uruguay are among the countries with the highest proportion of pregnant women who smoke. The implementation of an effective smoking cessation intervention would have a significant impact on the health of mothers and children. The "5 A's" (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) is a strategy consisting of a brief cessation counseling session of 5-15 minutes delivered by a trained provider, which is considered the standard of care worldwide. However, it is under used in Argentina and Uruguay. We will conduct a two-arm, parallel cluster randomized controlled trial of an implementation intervention in 20 prenatal clinics in Argentina and Uruguay. Our primary hypothesis is that the intervention is feasible in prenatal clinics in Argentina and Uruguay and will increase the frequency of women receiving tobacco use cessation counseling during pregnancy. Our secondary hypothesis is that the intervention will decrease the frequency of women who smoke by the end of their pregnancies. Prenatal clinics will be randomly allocated to either an intervention or a control group after a baseline data collection period. Midwife facilitators in the ten intervention clinics will be identified and trained to deliver the "5 A's" to pregnant women and will then disseminate and implement the program. The ten clinics in the control group will continue with their standard in-service activities. A follow-up data collection will be conducted immediately after delivery. The intervention will be tailored by formative research to be readily applicable to local prenatal care services at busy maternity hospitals, as well as to be acceptable to local pregnant women and health providers. The study will be conducted in 48 months.
Uganda is one of the countries with highest fertility rate in the world, 6.7 children per women. It is estimated that 56 percent of all pregnancies are unintended and the contraceptive prevalence rate in Uganda is 23 percent. Unwanted pregnancy is common and induced abortion is illegal. Unsafe abortion is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality among women in Uganda. Almost 40% of admissions to emergency obstetric care units in Uganda due to unsafe abortion is reported and considered high in international comparison. Studies have revealed that trained midlevel providers can deliver safe post abortion care (PAC) for incomplete abortion and use manual vacuum aspiration. The prostaglandin E1 analogue misoprostol has been shown to be an effective tool in the treatment of incomplete abortions. This option is so far under-used in developing countries, especially outside the larger hospitals and private clinics. One significant limiting factor in providing safe PAC is the lack of providers. So far technical training has been mainly limited to physicians. The long-term goal of this project is to provide evidence based information that will contribute to the development of strategies to increase women's access to high level post- abortion care at primary health care level provided by midlevel providers in Uganda. A task shift to midlevel provider in providing treatment of incomplete abortion will increase access to safe PAC and is a key to Millenium Development Goal 5. Misoprostol treatment of incomplete abortion remains underused and in accessible to a majority of women in Uganda because national regulations restricts its prescription and supervision to doctors. However, the safety of misoprostol treatment should make it amenable to provision by midlevel providers. Training of midlevel providers in misoprostol treatment of incomplete abortion will support task shifting in places where doctors are costly and scarce. By evaluating the effectiveness of mid-level providers (midwives); administering misoprostol treatment of incomplete abortion the project is attempting to contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity and safeguard high quality of post-abortion care. A direct economic impact can also be expected due to reduced treatment costs of complications from unsafely induced abortion and incomplete abortions. The involvement of midlevel providers in medical treatment of incomplete abortion has previously not been systematically evaluated in African primary health care setting.
Obesity is becoming more common and disproportionately affects the younger generation, the poor and certain ethnic groups. Nearly 50% of reproductive aged women are obese or overweight. Obesity during pregnancy leads to higher rates of hypertensive disorders, stillbirth, less successful breastfeeding, obesity in their offspring, postpartum depression, and higher weight retention postpartum. Dietary counseling can prevent excessive maternal weight gain and is more effective than activity-based interventions. The two objectives of this study are 1) to use community-based techniques to improve dietary counseling for high risk women and 2) to randomize obese women to dietary counseling at Truman Medical Center and measure their success. The hypothesis is that dietary interventions can successfully be tailored for high risk women and that excessive weight gain during pregnancy can be avoided.
Hypothesis: The investigators propose that obese parturients will have an increased inflammatory response and a decreased anti-inflammatory response to the surgical and anesthetic insult of caesarean section and that this will be associated with a higher rate of perioperative complications, as compared to non-obese parturients.2 Background: Obese patients exhibit higher levels of inflammatory markers than non-obese patients. Furthermore, obese patients have a higher incidence of perioperative complications, especially wound infections, and this is well documented in the caesarean section population. The pregnant population is unique as a result of the immunologic changes that occur at baseline, and an increase in pro-inflammatory markers is seen in serum and in placental tissue of obese subjects, and has been demonstrated to correlate with adverse fetal outcomes. Specific Objectives: To determine the baseline levels of three established markers of inflammation in term pregnant obese and non-obese patients (defined by a BMI > and < 35 kg/M2 respectively), and examine how they change in response to the stress of surgery/anesthesia. The investigators will correlate the inflammatory response with the incidence of postoperative wound infections. Methods: Patients will be recruited to the study prior to the planned caesarean section. Blood samples for inflammatory marker levels will be performed preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and at 24 hours postoperatively. Samples will be analyzed for pentraxin-3 (a relatively novel inflammatory marker), C reactive protein (CRP) (a well-known and clinically relevant inflammatory marker), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) (an established anti-inflammatory marker). Plasma will be analyzed by ELISA to determine levels of each biomarker. Patient charts will be reviewed to determine which patients have experienced surgical complications in the 30 days postoperatively. Surgical complications will then be correlated with the measured levels of inflammatory markers. Assuming that the levels of inflammatory cytokines in obese patients will be 15% higher in obese parturients and assuming an alpha error level of 5% and a beta error level of 20%, the investigators would need to study 18 patients per group to prove our hypothesis that inflammatory cytokine levels are correlated with postoperative infections. The investigators plan to study 20 patients per group to account for a potential patient attrition rate of 10% during the study. Significance/Importance: The connection between obesity and dysregulation of the perioperative inflammatory response has not been well established nor has perioperative inflammation in the obese population been linked to the observed increased in perioperative morbidity. The investigators hope to demonstrate these connections and hopefully will be able to identify at risk patients earlier, and in a subsequent study intervene to reduce the risk of postoperative wound infections with pharmacokinetically targeted antimicrobial prophylaxis.
Access to highly active antiretroviral therapy can improve maternal health outcomes for the 4000 HIV- infected women who give birth daily and nearly eliminate transmission of HIV to their infants. However, system inefficiencies, particularly CD4 testing to determine treatment eligibility, are barriers. The project aims to study the effectiveness of a programmatic intervention at improving antenatal access to treatment.
Simulation-based training is essential in learning or maintaining skills in high risk industry such as aviation and railway and in the medical field like anaesthesia. Debriefing following simulation is fundamental in order to reduce the emotional impact of the session and to asses the technical and non-technical skills (behavior). Even if the ideal debriefing method is still to be found, individual debriefing is considered as the gold standard but time consuming. The DEBRIEF-SIM study is a prospective, single blinded, multicentric and randomized study that will compare the individual (defined by learning couple resident and nurse) approach to a grouped (several couples) debriefing. The primary end point is to define the noninferiority of this approach compared to the individual one on the educational impact. The learners will be debriefed according to their randomization after the first session, but will all undergo individual debriefing following the second session.
A national survey in Niger found that women and children are at risk of undernutrition and that many pregnant women don't visit health centers during pregnancy as often as is recommended. The aim is to assess the nutritional and health status of pregnant women in the Zinder region and to understand their knowledge, attitudes and practices related to health and nutrition during pregnancy. In collaboration with the Medical District of Zinder the prenatal care services will be optimized and the programmatic impact on gestational weight gain and anemia prevalence will be assessed.
Preeclampsia (PE) is a common disorder of pregnancy that complicates 4-7% of all pregnancies. It is a serious condition with acute proteinuria and hypertension and varying degrees of edema after 20 weeks of gestation. PE leads to a severe risk of low birth weight because of prematurity with inherent complications. The pathogenesis is unknown but is assumed to involve placental ischemia.The primary placental disorder results in renal glomerular injury. Established PE is associated with paradoxical suppression of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, RAAS. Despite suppressed RAAS, patients with PE retain NaCl(sodium chloride) after an intravenous isotonic NaCl overload compared to healthy pregnant women on a low NaCl diet. The investigators believe to have data that provide a possible explanation for the overall relationship between proteinuria, NaCl retension, suppression of RAAS, hypertension and underdevelopment of placenta. Earlier data, which the investigators have confirmed, shows abnormal glomerular loss of the enzyme plasmin/plasminogen from plasma to the urine in PE. Active plasmin in urine from patients with nephrotic syndrome and PE activates the epithelial sodium channel ( ENaC ) in renal collecting duct cells. The investigators hypothesize that loss of plasmin/plasminogen are shared for the diseases with proteinuria, including PE, and that plasmin- driven ENaC (epithelial sodium channel) activation is a causal factor in the pathophysiology of established PE. Hyperactive ENaC causes primary renal sodium retention with secondary suppression of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Aldosterone is recently established as a placental growth factor. Plasma-aldosterone levels are significant higher in normal pregnant women. PE is characterized by low aldosterone levels (a discovery the investigators have also confirmed) and by placental underdevelopment. Study Aim: To test specific hypothesis regarding established PE´s pathophysiological mechanisms. Study Hypothesis: 1. Excretion of urine proteases (plasmin/plasminogen) in PE leads to an activation of ENaC and hence RAAS is less NaCl sensitive while the blood pressure is more NaCl sensitive compared to healthy pregnant women. 2. The degree of aldosterone suppression in PE determines placental development
It is estimated that around 50 000 women die every year due to consequences of unsafe abortion (Singh et al, 2009). A majority of these deaths occur in low-income countries where access to safe abortion care is limited. Unplanned pregnancy and unsafe abortion thus place a huge burden on scarce medical resources. Any improvement in Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) would mean important improvements for the concerned women and their families (Singh, 2006) as well as for the societies at large. Recommended improvements concern increased access to the safest and most cost-effective methods such as medical abortion provided at primary level facilities (Singh et al, 2009). A Cochrane Review concludes that most randomised controlled trials within the field of medical abortion are conducted in high-income settings with good access to emergency health care services (Kulier et al, 2004). A simplified regime for medical abortion, which could be used at primary level facilities, would contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity related to unsafe abortions globally. However, there is a knowledge gap in order to determine if a simplified follow up of medical abortion is equally effective as the standard procedure in a low-income setting. The results will provide evidence-based information to be used in revising training and service delivery guidelines' in order to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in both low and high-income setting.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the Alexis O C-section retractor in obese patients (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) who undergo Cesarean sections. Patients will be randomized to the use of the Alexis retractor during Cesarean section (treatment group) or the use of traditional hand-held retractors (control group). We will determine if there is any difference in surgical site infection or wound disruption rates. We will also determine if there is a difference in the duration of surgery or length of time from skin incision to delivery of the infant, change in hemoglobin, estimated blood loss, and postoperative length of stay, intra-operative or postoperative anti-emetic requirements, need for hospital readmission or emergency room visits, or other complication rate between the two groups.