International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics : the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics
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Int J Gynaecol Obstet · Dec 2013
ReviewConscientious objection or fear of social stigma and unawareness of ethical obligations.
Conscientious objection is a legitimate right of physicians to reject the practice of actions that violate their ethical or moral principles. The application of that principle is being used in many countries as a justification to deny safe abortion care to women who have the legal right to have access to safe termination of pregnancy. ⋯ Any conscientious objection to treating a patient is secondary to this primary duty. One of the jobs of the FIGO Working Group for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion is to change this paradigm and make our colleagues proud of providing legal abortion services that protect women's life and health, and concerned about disrespecting the human rights of women and professional ethical principles.
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Int J Gynaecol Obstet · Dec 2013
ReviewLegal and ethical standards for protecting women's human rights and the practice of conscientious objection in reproductive healthcare settings.
The practice of conscientious objection by healthcare workers is growing across the globe. It is most common in reproductive healthcare settings because of the religious or moral values placed on beliefs as to when life begins. It is often invoked in the context of abortion and contraceptive services, including the provision of information related to such services. ⋯ Under international human rights law, states have a positive obligation to act in this regard. While ethical and human rights standards regarding this issue are growing, they do not yet exhaustively cover all the situations in which women's health and human rights are in jeopardy because of the practice. The present article sets forth existing ethical and human rights standards on the issue and illustrates the need for further development and clarity on balancing these rights and interests.
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Several recent studies in low-resource countries have claimed that training in-and increased use of-newborn resuscitation resulted in reduced stillbirth rates. In the present article, we explore the ability of various types of birth attendant in some low-resource country locations to gather data that accurately differentiate a stillbirth from a live birth/early neonatal death. We conclude that, in many situations, it cannot be determined whether the infant was a stillbirth or a live birth/early neonatal death, and therefore the least-biased description of study outcomes includes a combined stillbirth and live birth/neonatal death outcome. However, because defining the burden of stillbirth and neonatal death is important from a public health perspective, every effort should be made, in low-income countries and elsewhere, to distinguish between stillbirths and live births/neonatal deaths and to report the results independently.
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Int J Gynaecol Obstet · Nov 2013
Maternal deaths attributable to hypertensive disorders in a tertiary hospital in Ghana.
To determine the contribution of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy to maternal deaths at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra, Ghana. ⋯ Hypertensive diseases are the leading cause of maternal death at KBTH, having overtaken obstetric hemorrhage, with eclampsia, acute renal failure, intracerebral hemorrhage, and pulmonary edema representing the major immediate causes of hypertension-related maternal death.