Pregnancy and Birth


Book Description

Pregnancy and Birth: Your Questions Answered offers up-to-date information in an accessible, easy-to-understand format. This reassuring reference provides complete answers to hundreds of questions on every aspect of pregnancy and birth. Pregnancy and Birth: Your Questions Answered is an indispensable source of information and guidance for all prospective parents. This eBook includes hundreds of photographs, charts, and illustrations, and covers every moment of pregnancy and birth from conception, prenatal care, and labor to the first six weeks of your baby's life.




WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience


Book Description

Within the continuum of reproductive health care, antenatal care provides a platform for important health-care functions, including health promotion, screening and diagnosis, and disease prevention. It has been established that, by implementing timely and appropriate evidence-based practices, antenatal care can save lives. Endorsed by the United Nations Secretary-General, this is a comprehensive WHO guideline on routine antenatal care for pregnant women and adolescent girls. It aims to complement existing WHO guidelines on the management of specific pregnancy-related complications. The guidance captures the complex nature of the antenatal care issues surrounding healthcare practices and delivery, and prioritizes person-centered health and well-being --- not only the prevention of death and morbidity --- in accordance with a human rights-based approach.




Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes


Book Description

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.




Assessing Genetic Risks


Book Description

Raising hopes for disease treatment and prevention, but also the specter of discrimination and "designer genes," genetic testing is potentially one of the most socially explosive developments of our time. This book presents a current assessment of this rapidly evolving field, offering principles for actions and research and recommendations on key issues in genetic testing and screening. Advantages of early genetic knowledge are balanced with issues associated with such knowledge: availability of treatment, privacy and discrimination, personal decision-making, public health objectives, cost, and more. Among the important issues covered: Quality control in genetic testing. Appropriate roles for public agencies, private health practitioners, and laboratories. Value-neutral education and counseling for persons considering testing. Use of test results in insurance, employment, and other settings.







Prenatal Diagnostic Testing for Genetic Disorders


Book Description

This comprehensive volume covers all aspects of the revolution in prenatal diagnosis brought about by the introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which primarily relies on the detection of free fetal DNA circulating in maternal blood from the early stages of pregnancy. The book explores the potential of NIPT to provide full genome screening of the fetus and identify many common or rare disorders. The counseling process, as well as the limitations and pitfalls of various techniques used to perform NIPT, are described, evaluated, and critically discussed by renowned international experts. The book also compares the new technology with more conventional tests, preimplantation diagnosis, and the invasive procedures currently in use. This book will be a valuable resource for gynecologists, obstetricians, geneticists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, pathologists, neonatologists, reproductive medicine specialists, midwives, and anyone interested in prenatal genetic diagnosis.




Birth Settings in America


Book Description

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.




Kathlamet Texts


Book Description




1000 Questions about Your Pregnancy


Book Description

This is the latest information available about pregnancy and childbearing. Jeffrey Thurston has pulled from his 20 years of OB/GYN practice and the delivery of over 5,200 babies to give you quick, reassuring answers. This is an easy-to-follow guide with illustrations and a complete index for effortless cross-referencing. Dr Thurston addresses concerns from the most frequent to the most obscure. Should I be taking prenatal vitamins? How do I choose a doctor? Can I still continue my exercise program during my pregnancy? How will I know if I am having contractions? Do I need to be on a special diet? The list goes on and Dr Thurston relates to his readers as if they are chatting in his office. This is a must-have security blanket for all mothers to be.




100 Years of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin


Book Description

100 years of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin: Reviews and New Perspectives is a collection of articles written by some of the world's leading experts on the pregnancy hormone and cancer marker hCG. In 2019 it is difficult to ignore the effect that our understanding of hCG has had on the lives of millions of people worldwide. The hCG immunoassay, in one form or another, is now one of the most common medical tests conducted and is often the first indication that a mother-to-be is pregnant. Not only a marker of pregnancy, hCG is utilized in the diagnosis and monitoring in oncology and presents a potential target for novel cancer therapeutics. 100 years ago, in 1919, Hirose was demonstrating gonadotropic functions which resulted from a chorionic factor. Over the last century this factor has become defined as hCG and more recently explored as not one molecule but a group of molecules with variable structure and variable functions in both pregnancy and cancer. hCG is a multi-faceted molecule that has clinical and therapeutic implications but can be a challenging topic for researchers and physicians alike. This text covers the different structures and functions of hCG exploring the genes and evolution of the molecule, the different protein and glycosylation structures which can exist and their effect on structure, detection and quantification. 100 Years of hCG is not an attempt to recount the history of every publication on hCG, but rather a collection of reviews and new perspectives by "hCG-ologists", the term used by Hussa to describe biochemists working on HCG in the first book written on the topic over 30 years ago. Some of the authors have been around a while, some not so long, but others are just beginning their journey with a most beguiling molecule. - Provides updated information on a complex and changing subject in five sections - Reviews historical perspectives and developments over the last 100 years - Includes novel insights into the structure, function and detection of hCG in pregnancy and cancer - Includes chapters on the use of mass spectrometry to detect and quantify hCG as well as traditional immunoassays and over the counter pregnancy tests - Describes the role of hCG in pregnancy, endometrial receptivity and embryo implantation and the use in fertility treatment - Addresses the specific hyperglycosylated hCG test that can distinguish a normal term from a failing pregnancy and also screen for preeclampsia and gestational hypertension in pregnancy as well as its use as a marker and treatment target in cancer. - Includes chapters on the development and use of hCG vaccines - Includes a section on hCG and in subunits in cancer




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