Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effective midwifery care from pregnancy to postpartum in order to promote evidence-based midwifery practice in improving childbirth satisfaction and breastfeeding. The subjects were one-month postpartum mothers who came to one-month check-up during July to October in 2010. The purpose of the self-administered questionnaire developed by the research group was explained, then provided to mothers who agreed to participate in the survey at 4 hospitals each with more than 300 beds and 1 clinic with more than 500 deliveries annually in Okinawa. The questionnaire was collected on the same day or via postal mail. A total of 540 mothers agreed to complete the survey, and 434 responses were considered valid for this study (valid response rate: 80.4%). Vaginal delivery group was 223 (82.3% with medical intervention rate of 15.2%), and the cesarean section group was 48 (17.7%). The most helpful one-on-one guidance was "nipple care in preparation for breastfeeding" during pregnancy, "encouragement" during delivery, and "Kangaroo (skin-to-skin) care" immediately after the delivery. An Application rate of episiotomy was 65.2% for primiparous women and 30.5% for multiparous women. The rate of perineal laceration enlarged to more than third degree in cases with episiotomy is three times more than the cases with no episiotomy. Additionally, the prevalence of breastfeeding at one-month postpartum was significantly higher in the mothers rooming-in with the baby (76.2%) than mothers in separate room (28.3%). Moreover, 60.3% of the mothers in the complete rooming-in group answered they had not felt difficulty with childcare while it dropped to 46.2% among the mothers in the separate room group.
Highlights
Contrary to the high birth rate, Okinawa is faced with mother-child health issues such as highest rate of low birth weight babies, youth pregnancies/deliveries, not receiving pregnancy check-ups, highest divorce rate and child poverty rate among other prefectures in Japan [1]
The episiotomy rate showed a difference between primi- and multiparous women with 48.4% for primiparous women and 23.0% for multiparous women
When subjects were categorized by delivery method, we found 140 vaginal deliveries (77.0%) and 34 cesarean sections (19.0%) for primiparous women, and 166 vaginal deliveries (66.0%) and 43 cesarean sections (17.0%) for multiparous women
Summary
Contrary to the high birth rate, Okinawa is faced with mother-child health issues such as highest rate of low birth weight babies, youth pregnancies/deliveries, not receiving pregnancy check-ups, highest divorce rate and child poverty rate among other prefectures in Japan [1]. The need for continuous complete support system is called for from doctors and midwives for women starting in the gestation period. At the private practices and birth centers which are the primary places for delivery in the communities, midwives have placed importance on midwifery care which enhances self-care skills during the gestation period through one-on-one birth preparation education. The number of mothers with postpartum depression and maternity neurosis have increased, and the need to support mothers under difficult situation that could lead to infant and child abuse is increasing more than ever [8]. This is why we need to show the effectiveness of midwife care as childcare support, which enables women to prepare for the coming delivery with physical and emotional confidence, overcome child birth more safely and comfortably, decrease the feeling of postpartum childcare burden, and transit smoothly into breastfeeding stage
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Nursing & Clinical Practices
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
