Background and aimsThe process of giving birth is very stressing for the mother. Meanwhile, maternity ward staff’s lack of awareness of mothers’ fears make mothers feel lonely and helpless. This study aimed to explore women’s perceptions of labor support during vaginal delivery.Materials and methodsThis exploratory qualitative study used qualitative content analysis to explore Iranian mothers’ experiences of labor support. Data were collected using observations and semi-structured interviews with 25 individuals. The participants were recruited through a purposive sampling method.ResultsThree categories, including “involvement of the spouse in the labor process”, “asking for a companion during labor”, and “mother’s self-care to cope with labor pain”, emerged during data analysis. These categories were merged to form the main theme of “trying to comply with the labor process”.ConclusionWomen believed that the presence of a companion, e.g. their husband, a family member, or a doula, during labor helped them better deal with the labor process, particularly when they felt lonely. Health care providers are expected to consider the needs of mothers and try to provide holistic support for mothers during labor pain.Implications for practiceIt seems that some mothers adopted particular coping strategies without receiving any relevant training. It is noteworthy that although mothers may make every effort to minimize their pain, health professionals should also practice medical approaches to help them through the process of labor.

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Background:During the past years, significant efforts have been made to explain the biological backgrounds of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Cortical-subcortical and neurotransmitter models are used for explaining the symptoms of OCD, so our hypothesis is that brain's transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) can regulate the brain activities of the OCD patients. Thus, based on the mentioned issues, this research seeks to investigate the efficacy of TDCS in treatment-resistant patients who suffer from severe OCD.Materials and Methods:The present study is a clinical trial research which was based on the available sampling method, 42 treatment-resistant patients who suffer from severe OCD were selected as research's samples (2015–2016). Medical intervention protocol in this study is TDCS cathode type that was done in 15 sessions for 3 consecutive weeks (each session was conducted for 30 min daily). Yale–Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale was used for evaluating the efficacy of TDCS method during the 1st, 5th, 10th, and 15th sessions and it was also used for checking the 1st and 3rd monthly follow-up phases.Results:Variance within-group analysis (repeated measure) showed that the mean differences in the different stages of evaluation are significant (seven stages of evaluation).Conclusion:TDCS can be introduced as an appropriate, strong tool for regulating the brain - behavioral systems and it can also be introduced as a suitable alternative treatment for treatment-resistant patients who suffer from severe OCD.

Context:Air pollution is common in all countries and affects reproductive functions in men and women. It particularly impacts sperm parameters in men. This meta-analysis aimed to examine the impact of air pollution on the quality of sperm.Evidence Acquisition:The scientific databases of Medline, PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar, Cochrane Library, and Elsevier were searched to identify relevant articles published between 1978 to 2013. In the first step, 76 articles were selected. These studies were ecological correlation, cohort, retrospective, cross-sectional, and case control ones that were found through electronic and hand search of references about air pollution and male infertility. The outcome measurement was the change in sperm parameters. A total of 11 articles were ultimately included in a meta-analysis to examine the impact of air pollution on sperm parameters. The authors applied meta-analysis sheets from Cochrane library, then data extraction, including mean and standard deviation of sperm parameters were calculated and finally their confidence interval (CI) were compared to CI of standard parameters.Results:The CI for pooled means were as follows: 2.68 ± 0.32 for ejaculation volume (mL), 62.1 ± 15.88 for sperm concentration (million per milliliter), 39.4 ± 5.52 for sperm motility (%), 23.91 ± 13.43 for sperm morphology (%) and 49.53 ± 11.08 for sperm count.Conclusions:The results of this meta-analysis showed that air pollution reduces sperm motility, but has no impact on the other sperm parameters of spermogram.