METHODS: Sixteen women who underwent an EmCS in the past year and experienced traumatic childbirth in a tertiary hospital in Luoyang, Henan Province had participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews between February and May 2023. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: Four themes and ten sub-themes were extracted from the data: Theme 1: Journey from crisis to renewal: the psychological recovery process of women experienced traumatic childbirth after EmCS (stress phase, reaction phase, emotional processing and adjustment phase, and stabilization and reconstruction phase); Theme 2: Empowering mothers and families: addressing the multifaceted needs of comprehensive perinatal health education (insufficient individualized care: diversity and challenges of maternal needs, the gap in spousal involvement in perinatal health education); Theme 3: The barriers between patient-professional communication in healthcare (breaking the silence: needs to address the ineffective communication, beyond the diagnosis: needs for empathy in healthcare); and Theme 4: Limited family support (the forgotten mothers, husbands' emotional absence).
CONCLUSIONS: This study contributed to our understanding of the childbirth process for women undergoing EmCS. Women in this period experienced a range of negative emotions, they were lacking in sufficient health education, good communication between healthcare professionals and adequate family support. The research findings are valuable for us to identify their difficulties and needs, enabling us to provide assistance.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on all primary care doctors working in government health clinics in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from October 2016 to November 2016. A self-reported questionnaire was used, which included questions on demographic information, knowledge of in-flight medicine, and the attitude and confidence of primary care doctors in managing in-flight medical emergencies.
RESULTS: 182 doctors completed the questionnaire (92.9% response rate). The mean knowledge score was 8.9 out of a maximum score of 20. Only 11.5% of doctors felt confident managing in-flight medical emergencies. The majority (69.2%) would assist in an in-flight medical emergency, but the readiness to assist was reduced if someone else was already helping or if they were not familiar with the emergency. Total knowledge score was positively associated with confidence in managing in-flight medical emergencies (p = 0.03).
CONCLUSION: Only one in ten primary care doctors in this study felt confident managing in-flight medical emergencies. A higher total knowledge score of in-flight medical emergencies was positively associated with greater confidence in managing them. Educational programmes to address this gap in knowledge may be useful to improve doctors' confidence in managing in-flight medical emergencies.