Labor pain management is one of the main goals of maternity care. Ice application or cooling has been claimed to be as an effective, safe and non-invasive adjuvant mean for providing pain relief during the first stage of labor. Aim of the study: To evaluate effect of ice pack application on pain intensity during active phase of the first stage of labor among primiparaous. Research design: None-randomized-controlled clinical trial research design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted at labor and delivery unit of El Shatby Maternity University Hospital affiliated to Alexandria University. Subjects: Convenience sample of 80 pregnant women attending the previously mentioned setting were recruited in the study.

Introduction: Nutrition in pregnancy is usually socio-culturally shaped which marked by different beliefs and values. These beliefs and values yield taboos and myths that greatly shape their lifestyle. Therefore, understanding the client"s culture is an important issue in a culturally congruent nutritional assessment and counseling. Aim of the study: to identify dietary knowledge, practices and adequacy among Bedouin pregnant women. Research design: A descriptive research design. Setting: The out-patient clinic of Marsa-Matrouh maternity hospital, Egypt. Subjects: A convenience sample of 320 pregnant women. Tools: Three tools were utilized for data collection: Tool I: Pregnant women"s basic data structured interview schedule Tool II: Pregnant women"s Dietary knowledge structured interview schedule and Tool III: Pregnant women"s dietary practices structured interview schedule. Results: Only 4.7% of the study subjects have good knowledge about nutrition during pregnancy. As much as 81.6% of them had fair knowledge and only 13.8 % had poor knowledge. Moreover, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between subject"s level of knowledge about nutrition during pregnancy and energy, protein, calcium and copper dietary adequacy(0.034, 0.052, 0.026, and 0.037, respectively.)Conclusion: the majority of the study subjects had fair level of knowledge about nutrition during pregnancy. Almost two-thirds of them had inadequate intake of most nutrients according to recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for pregnant women. Their level of knowledge about nutrition was positively correlated with their dietary adequacy.

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Introduction: The Health Belief Model (HBM) is one of the major conceptual frameworks guiding current research as well as practice in the health sciences. It takes into account the multiple factors present in a person’s decisions to live a healthy life, seek help when needed, and maintain periodic check-ups and screening. Aim of the study is to identify perception of women towards contraceptive methods using the health belief model. Research design: A descriptive research design was utilized in this study. Setting: This study was conducted at four family planning clinics affiliated to four maternity hospitals namely: EL- Shatby Maternity University hospital affiliated to Alexandria University, Dar-Ismail Maternity hospital affiliated to Ministry of Health, Faisal hospital affiliated to Health Insurance and Dar ALWelada hospital affiliated to Medical Health Association. Subjects: A convenience sample of 320 women who were seeking family planning services. Tools; Tool I: Contraceptive users' basic data structured interview schedule; Tool II: Contraceptive users' Health Belief scale. Results: Approximately an equal percent (56.56% & 43.44%) of the contraceptive users perceived themselves either highly susceptible or moderately susceptible for threat of getting pregnant, respectively. More than three-fourths (76.25%) of them had moderate perceived severity to the problems associated with contraceptive use compared to only 23.75% of them who had high level of perception. As much as 84.37% of them highly perceived the benefits of contraception uptake. Meanwhile, almost all (93.44%) of them moderately perceived barriers associated with contraception utilization. Conclusion: Contraceptive users had high perception related to susceptibility of the threat of pregnancy and benefits of contraceptive methods utilization. Moreover, the vast majority of them had moderate perception to severity and barriers associated with contraception uptake. Last but not least, there was a statistically significant correlation between women's health beliefs and their utilization of contraceptive method. 

Background: Pregnancy is one of the most important events that institute a powerful experience in women's life and their families. Pregnant women's relationship with maternity care providers and the maternity care system during pregnancy is vitally important. Care during this period needs to encompass basic human rights. Objective: To compare between nurses' compliance with pregnant women's bill of rights in an urban and rural areas in Alexandria. Settings: The study was carried out at El Shatby Maternity University Hospital and four family medicine centers in Abies, Alexandria. Subjects: A convenient sample of 120 nurses working for at least 2 years in antenatal units of the abovely mentioned settings. Tools: Three tools were used for data collection. The first tool was basic data Questionnaire to identify nurses' socio demographic, academic and professional data. The second tool was nurses' knowledge about pregnant women's bill of rights questionnaire. The third tool was nurses' compliance with pregnant women's bill of rights, observational checklist. Results: Findings of the present study revealed that a statistically significant difference is observed among the two groups regarding the relationship between their total score of knowledge and level of compliance. Although, good knowledge among as much as 51.3% and 44.0% of urban and rural nurses, respectively, was associated with poor compliance level. Yet no good compliance was observed among the good knowledge rural ones unlike the urban ones. Where all the good compliant ones were good knowledge (p=0.041). Conclusion: The study concluded that nurse's compliance with pregnant women's bill of rights was unfortunately poor in both urban and rural settings. Recommendations: training program(s) are recommended for maternity nurses addressing the importance of compliance with pregnant women's bill of rights.