Objectives:  To gauge/evaluate the knowledge and skill of BLS trained and untrained teaching faculty members at postgraduate tertiary care training institute Materials and Methods: A prevalidated questionnaire comprising of 44 questions was distributed among teaching faculty of three big tertiary care, post-graduate institutes. The questions were focused on evaluating the knowledge and awareness of the participants. Total number of the participants was 345 Statistical Analysis: Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS (version 23.0). Results: The mean knowledge score related to basic life support was 4.57±1.81 out of total 12 points and the mean score for level of awareness regarding BLS was 34.5 %. Moreover, only 28.15% were aware of the current AHA guidelines Conclusion: The low level of knowledge and awareness regarding BLS in the health care workers depicts that regular BLS hands-on- workshops should be conducted and should be a part of mandatory training.

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Objective: To determine the frequency and association of coping strategies with  different  levels  of  anxiety and depression. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in private hospitals of Karachi, from January to May 2017. Data was collected from pregnant women willing to participate in the study by using non-probability convenient  sampling.  A  questionnaire  was  used  to  gather  socio-demographic  and  obstetric  data after informed consent  from  pregnant  women.  Hospital  anxiety  and  depression  scale  (HADS)  was used to identify different levels of anxiety and  depression.  Coping  strategies  were  assessed  by using brief inventory results which were assessed on SPSS 16. Results: Study group included 400 women between the ages of 18 to 38 years with a mean age of 27.08 ± 4.074. The adaptive strategies were used  by  23.3%  of  the  study  group.  Maladaptive  strate- gies were adopted by 17.9% of women and 58.9% were using both adaptive and maladaptive strate-      gies. There was a significant association  of  adaptive  strategies  and  women  appearing  normal  on  HADS scale (p-value= 0.000, OR= .077) whereas there was negative association with maladaptive strategies and normal behaviour (p-value= 0.032, OR= 1.747).  Women  with  borderline  anxiety  were  using only combination of both types of strategies. Women using maladaptive strategies were having significant association with abnormal level of anxiety (p-value= 0.000, OR= 3.369) with borderline de- pression (p-value= 0.012, OR= .420) and abnormal depression (p-value= 0.000, OR=  -6.657).  Active coping (OR 5.952 and 6.679), instrumental (OR 4.138 and 6.679), planning (OR 10.300 and 6.646),) and positive reframing (OR 1.735 and 3.765) were protective for abnormal anxiety and abnormal de- pression. Religious practices were protective for abnormal anxiety only (OR= 4.289). Conclusion: Adaptive strategies are associated with normal mental status and are protective for anxiety and depression whereas maladaptive strategies are the risk factors for anxiety and depression.  Pregnant women should be encouraged to adopt adaptive strategies to reduce the adverse outcome associated with anxiety and depression.

Objective: To  determine the frequency of antenatal anxiety and depression and its risk profile including demographic, psychosocial and obstetric risk factors, in middle socioeconomic women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at two private hospital centres of Karachi, over a pe-    riod of five months from October 2016 to March 2017. A questionnaire (age, education, parity, socio- economic status, employment) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were the tools    used to gather required information from pregnant women. Data collected was entered in SPSS 16  software. Descriptive statistics were used  to  calculate  frequency  and  mean  values.  Logistic  regres-  sion both binary and multinomial was performed to identify significant predictors of anxiety and de- pression. Results: Our study showed that out of 520 pregnant women, 130 (25%) women had anxiety, whereas 220 (42.3%) had depression. The mean  age  of  women  was  26.9  ±  4.198  years.  The  range  being  from 18 years to 35 years. Significant risk factors among anxiety group were: working woman; 30.8% (p-value=0.000, OR=0.286), domestic violence; 84.6%  (p-value=0.000,  OR=2.8),  difficult  relationship  with in-laws;  84.6%  (p-value=0.000,  OR=12.375),  sleep  disturbance;  76.9%  (p-value=0.000,  OR=9.667), primigravida; 23% (p-value=0.000, OR=2.576) and unplanned pregnancy; 23.1% (p- value=0.029, OR=0.511). Significant risk factors among women with depression were: working woman; 31.8% (p- value=0.000,OR=0.286), domestic  violence;  68.2%  (p-value=0.000,  OR=3.571),  difficult  relationship  with in-laws; 22.7% (p-value=0.000, OR=4.8), sleep disturbance; 54.5% (p-value=0.008, OR=2.0), primigravida; 45.5% (p-value=0.000, OR=17.246) and unplanned pregnancy; 18.2% (p-value=0.000, OR=3.0). Other factors that were found to be significant in the  depression  group  only  were: unsatis- factory relationship with husband; 22.7% (p-value=0.000, OR=4.118),  stressful  life  event  in  previous  year; 45.5% (p-value=0.000, OR=2.167), and tertiary education; 68.2% (p-value=0.002, OR=0.916). Conclusion: Psychosocial and demographic factors such as working woman, domestic violence, and difficult relationship with in-laws and sleep disturbance had a  significant  association  with  antenatal  anxiety and depression. Obstetric risk factors were primigravida and unplanned pregnancy. Significant association with depression was unsatisfactory relationship with husband, stressful  life  event  in  a  previous year and tertiary education.

Objective: To determine the frequency and risk factors of maternal anaemia after delivery. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in two private tertiary care hospitals of Karachi over a period of six  month  from April  to  October  2017. A sample  of  300  postpartum  women  was  recruited in the study by convenient sampling. Inclusions criteria were women more than 24 hours or up to one week following delivery of babies of  more than 28 weeks of gestation and all booked cases of hospitals that consented to take part in re-  search study. Exclusion criteria were  women  who  had  no  antenatal  visits  and  haemoglobin  estima-  tion in third trimester of pregnancy. Data was collected using predesigned  questionnaire  after  taking  informed  consent.  Haemoglobin  lev- els were noted in early pregnancy, third trimester and postpartum period. Results: The study group comprises of 135 (47.9%) women with postpartum anaemia, whereas 147 (52.1%) women had normal level of haemoglobin. A total of 72 (25.5%) women had a rise in haemo- globin,192  (62%)  women  had  low  and  18  (6.4%)  women  had  unchanged  postpartum  haemoglobin  as compared to the third trimester haemoglobin level. The mean age of the study group was 27.59 ± 4.221. Inadequate iron intake was noted in 66 (48.9%) women in the anaemic group, whereas it was found in 51 (34.7%) women in the non-anaemic group (p-value=0.000, OR=0.083). Anaemia was diagnosed during pregnancy in 105  (77.8%)  women  in  anaemic group, whereas 33 (22.4%) women had anaemia during  pregnancy  in  non-anaemic  post-  partum group (p-value=0.000, OR=0.083). Caesarean  section  was  performed  in  84  (62.3%)  women  with postpartum anaemia (p-value=0.010, OR=0.537). A total of 27 (20%) women  with  postpartum  anaemia had episiotomy during normal vaginal or instrumental deliveries (p-value=0.042, OR=1.765). Conclusion: Frequency of early postpartum anaemia is  high.  Anaemia  during  pregnancy,  inadequate iron intake, vaginal delivery with episiotomy and caesarean section were significant risk factors.