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- Adolfsson, Annsofie, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Miscarriage : women’s experience and its cumulative incidence
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many women experience miscarriage every year. Every fourth woman who has given birth reports that she has previous experience of miscarriage. In a study of all women in the Swedish Medical Birth Register 1983-2003, we found that the number of cases of self reported miscarriage had increased in Sweden during this 21 year period. This increase can be explained by the introduction of sensitive pregnancy tests around 1990, as well as an increase in the mean age of the mothers, by approximately 3 years, during the observation period. The risk of miscarriage is 13% with the first child. With subsequent pregnancies, the risk of miscarriage is 8%, 6% and 4% with the second, third and fourth child, respectively.Thirteen of these women who had suffered a recent miscarriage were interviewed four months later, and their feelings of guilt and emptiness were explored. Their experience was that they wanted their questions to be answered, and that they wanted others to treat them as the mothers to be that they felt themselves to be. They also experienced the need for time to grieve their loss.Measurement of grief by means of the Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS) is used in research but has also been proposed for clinical use. We have translated this psychological instrument to Swedish, back-translated and tested it in a small pilot study. In a randomized controlled study, women with early miscarriage were allocated, either to a structured visit (study group) or a regular visit (control group) to a midwife. The structured visit was conducted according to the Swanson caring theory. We could conclude that the structured visit had no significant effect on grief compared to the regular visit, as measured using the PGS. However, women with the sub-diagnosis missed abortion have significantly more grief four months after early miscarriage, regardless of visit type.We also performed a content analysis of the tape-recorded structured follow-up visit. The code-key used was Bonanno and Kaltman’s general grief categorization. Women’s expression of grief after miscarriage was found to be very similar to the grief experienced following the death of a relative. Furthermore, the grief was found to be independent of number of children, women’s age, or earlier experience of miscarriage.Conclusions: Every fourth woman who gives birth reports that she has also experienced early miscarriage. The experience of these women is that they have suffered a substantial loss and their reaction is grief similar to that experienced following the death of a relative.
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- Eriksson, Katarina
(författare)
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Bacterial Vaginosis : Diagnosis, Prevalence, and Treatment
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is a disorder of unknown etiology, characterized by a foul smelling vaginal discharge, loss or reduction of the normal vaginal Lactobacilli, and overgrowth of other anaerobic bacteria. Thus, it presents a formidable problem for clinicians as well as microbiologists researching its etiology, clinical course, treatment, and epidemiology. The present work focuses on the unresolved issues of the epidemiology and treatment of BV in order to provide valid methods for treatment studies of this condition and to describe the prevalence of BV in defined populations.The first study validates the use of PAP-stained smears in the diagnosis of BV. The study assesses the methods of Amsel’s clinical criteria and Nugent criteria on Gram-stain smears, against Pap-stained smears and also validates different observers. The result shows that the PAP-staining of vaginal smears is a good method in BV diagnosis; the kappa value is 0.86 (interobserver weighted kappa index) compared to 0.81 for Gram-stained smears, and 0.70 for rehydrated air-dried smears using the mean Nugent score as the criterion standard. This enables population based studies on archived PAP-stained smears from the screening of cervical cancer.In the second study, we use the knowledge gained from study one to investigate the prevalence of BV in a cohort from the population of Åland. The prevalences of BV on the Åland Islands were: 15.6 %, 11.9 %, 8.7 %, and 8.6% in 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008, respectively. This means that the prevalence of BV decreased between1993-2008 from 15.6% to 8.6%. The confidence intervals are not overlapping, thus indicating a significant decrease in prevalence from 1993 to 2008.The third study is a prospective, double-blind placebo controlled treatment study of BV. After conventional treatment with clindamycin, the patients were treated with adjuvant treatment of Lactobacilli-loaded tampons or placebo. The study showed no differences between the treatment and the placebo group, indicating that the tampon does not work at all. There are a variety of possible explanations for the result, which are analyzed in this thesis.The fourth study aimed to evaluate whether clindamycin is retained for a long time in the vaginal mucosa, thus disturbing the Lactobacilli in an attempt to reimplant Lactobacilli in the probiotic treatment studies. In conventional treatment, it is also useful to know whether clindamycin is retained, especially when considering the pressure from antibiotics on the antimicrobial sensitivity pattern. In the study, we found that the clindamycin disappears rapidly.Conclusion: BV research requires effort from many different scientific disciplines and the riddle of this condition and its treatment can only be resolved by concerted actions in research and treatment. The vision for the future includes, among other factors, better molecular biology based diagnostic tools, and knowledge of population based bacterial floras.
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- Linden, Karolina, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Study protocol for evaluating a web-support program with a control group for pregnant women and new mothers with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
- 2013
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Ingår i: 7th International DIP Symposium - Diabetes, Hypertension, Metabolic syndrome & Pregnancy. Florence, Italy, March 13-16, 2013.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background In the struggle to achieve normoglycemia during pregnancy, women with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) alternate between mastering their situation and feeling enslaved. Caregivers not only have the responsibility of optimising the women’s biological probability of delivering healthy children, but also of supporting them during their transition to motherhood. In order to establish breastfeeding and simultaneously control blood glucose, the mothers require extended post-partum support. The aim was to describe the study design of an on-going randomized controlled trial evaluating a web-support program for pregnant women and new mothers with T1D. Methods The developed web-based support is being implemented through a randomized controlled trial in which women with T1D in early pregnancy are randomized to either web-based support in addition to usual care (IG) or usual care (CG). A sample size of 160 is required based on the two primary outcomes: a general wellbeing scale (W-BQ12) and a diabetes empowerment scale (SWE-DES) to reach a statistical power of 80% with a significance level of 0.05. Results The web-support consists of evidence-based information, person-centred self-care diaries and an online social community. Outcomes will be measured in early pregnancy (baseline), about five weeks before expected partus and at two and six months after partus. Conclusion The unique contribution of this project is the development of a specially designed web application for mothers with T1D which is expected to increase the women’s personal resources, including knowledge, and thereby strengthen their autonomy during pregnancy, breastfeeding and early motherhood.
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