Introduction: Labour pain, though physiological, is an impulse producing stress reactions and adverse physical, mental and emotional sequelae in the body. Knowing the factors influencing the intensity of pain feeling, activities aimed at easing the pain can be applied. There is a great variety of strategies for coping with pain during labour. Parents can choose between pharmacological and natural methods, which are presently growing in popularity. Parents can ease the pain by means of different strategies of pain coping. Purpose: To analyse different strategies for pain coping used in labour. Materials and methods: The study was carried out in the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the J. Sniadecki District Hospital in Bialystok with a group of 164 patients during labour, using the questionnaire of pain coping strategies-CSQ, and visual analogue scale-VAS, which evaluates the intensity of pain. Results: In the group of patients examined, the most frequently used strategies of pain coping were declaration of coping and prayer/hope. These methods caused statistically significant influence on the decrease of the intensity of pain felt during labour stages I and II. The efficiency of the level of pain control and the possibilities for its reduction in labour were reported as average. Conclusions: Our results give grounds to assume that psychological treatment can be helpful during labour. The conscious application of pain coping strategies can significantly improve patients’ states of mind during labour, change patients’ attitudes towards labour and induce co-responsibility for labour progression.
Inflammation plays a key role in epithelial ovarian cancer tumorigenesis and progression. The growth and progression of epithelial ovarian cancer may be due to local cytokine-induced immunosu-ppression, which may lead to an immunity impairment. Thus, cytokine antagonism may be an essential factor in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Based on the increased knowledge on the role of the immune system in ovarian cancer, major improvements are to be expected of immunotherapy based treatment of this disease. This article aims to summarize the current literature views on the evidence for a role for chronic inflammation with a specific focus on anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Introduction: Urinary incontinence in women, in reference to the International Continence Society, is defined as an involuntary, uncontrollable, unwitting leakage of urine causing significant hygienic problems as well as physical and social discomfort. Purpose: To identify the major health problems of urinary incontinent women, the estimation of life quality determined by health in the aspect of physical and psychological existence, social interaction and environment influence, and to evaluate the patient’s agility and coping abilities in everyday life. Material and methods: The study was carried out at J. Sniadecki District Hospital and Medical University of Białystok Clinical Hospital in 2012. The study included 107 urinary incontinent women, and 93 continent women formed the control group. The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) were used. Results: The evaluation of general satisfaction from the quality of life and health satisfaction carried out in the examined group shows significantly worse values as compared to the healthy group of women (p=0.02 and p=0.003, relatively). Moreover, the group of women examined as compared to controls is characterized by significantly lower average results of the subjective estimation of the quality of life in the following aspects: physical (p=0.001), psychological (p=0.03), environmental (p=0.004), and social relations (p=0.002). A significant inverse correlation between the influence of an illness on particular aspects of existence taken into account in the KHQ questionnaire and the life quality level measured by the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was demonstrated. Conclusions: Women with urinary incontinence had lower scores of life quality. Urinary incontinence among women decreases physical activity and negatively affects their psychological and emotional conditions, as well as their professional and social activity.
Introduction: Changes to perinatal care should pertain to respecting the psychological and social value of birth, the promotion of privacy and individuality, increased respect for a woman’s and her husband’s rights to information, and their conscious and active participation during labour and birth, as well as to the promotion of a holistic model of family care during the period of procreation. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate perinatal care offered at Bialystok hospitals, based on the opinions of postpartum women hospitalized in obstetric wards. Materials and methods: The survey was conducted in the obstetric wards of two Bialystok hospitals, using a questionnaire developed solely for the purpose of this study in combination with the questionnaire developed by the Childbirth with Dignity Foundation. Results: This study revealed that, in the opinions of parturient women, the level of the quality of perinatal care is significantly modulated by compliance with the patient’s rights during hospitalization, knowledge about the Patient’s Bill of Rights, the friendliness of medical personnel, the creation of an atmosphere of privacy during hospitalization, the feeling of safety during hospitalization, individuals’ attitudes towards the patient, the implementation of routine procedures, compliance with novel standards of perinatal care and the implementation of these standards in obstetric wards, and the quality of neonatal care. Conclusions: Patient satisfaction is frequently used to evaluate the quality of medical care and to guide the development of health care services. The findings of this study underline the need to further discuss and specify the aims of quality perinatal care. The authors estimate that there are deficiencies in the different services that could be addressed by conducting a multi-professional and interdisciplinary research study.
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