Abstract
<p>Maternal health is a concept indicating the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period. Recent literature indicates that the maternal mortality rate in Iran is 23 per 100,000 live birth. For every death, 20 to 30 mothers suffer from chronic and acute illnesses arising from pregnancy and delivery; therefore, using a valid and reliable indicator will help researchers assess maternal health more precisely. In this longitudinal study, attempt has been made to compare mothers’ health status by using a subjective tool for evaluating the Physical-Maternal Health Index (P-MHI). The most common complaints made by mothers were headache, back pain, mastitis, nipple fissure, breast abscess, abdominal pain, pain in genitalia, constipation, hemorrhoids, anal fissure, urinary problems/Incontinence, fatigue, and dizziness/vertigo. The P-MHI is defined on the basis of these complaints scaling 0-100. The higher the index, the better the health status of mothers. It was administered by structured interviews with 743 participants before and during pregnancy, one week, two, four, and six months after childbirth (2010-2011). Post-natal mothers experience various problems, with back pain and fatigue being the most common. The P-MHI was at its lowest level in the first week after delivery (76 out of 100), followed by the second month (82 out of 100). The results showed that not only do mothers significantly lose their reproductive health after pregnancy, they don't attain their pre-pregnancy health status even six months after delivery (P&lt;0.0005). The trend of the P-MHI identified when and what kind of health care is the most urgent need of post-natal mothers.</p>
Highlights
Maternal health is a concept indicating the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period
Seventy-six percent were high school graduates or above; 52% of the mothers were pregnant for the first time, and 31% for the second time; 40% of the deliveries were done by Cesarean section (Cs)
Investigations showed that when collecting the data the same participants who had an specific problem during their pregnancy the same participants had it postpartum
Summary
Maternal health is a concept indicating the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period. (2012) aimed to offer a new scale for severe maternal morbidity during childbirth and postpartum They found that assessing the cases could help distinguish the best time for intervention (Callaghan, Creanga, & Kuklina, 2012). He suggested making a device through which mothers could specify the most important aspects of their quality of life Jones and his colleagues suggested two instruments for measuring positive and negative effects of parenting on mothers’ and fathers’ health. They studied several aspects of quality of life, but their participants complained of several physical problems, e.g. urinary incontinence, pain, etc. By using the findings of this study, policy makers will be able to execute an adequate maternal health-related program
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