Paediatric kidney transplantation, while life-saving, presents significant academic challenges for children. Frequent hospitalisations, medical treatments and the psychosocial impact of chronic illness can severely disrupt educational trajectories. This study aimed to explore the post-transplant academic experiences of children from the perspective of their parents.

A qualitative phenomenological study. Data were collected through in-depth, semistructured interviews and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

The study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, with participants recruited from the registry of the Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (PHOTA).

Thirteen parents of children who had undergone a kidney transplant and were enrolled in a formal school.

Five major themes emerged from the analysis: (1) academic disruption and coping, detailing declines in performance and motivation alongside efforts to maintain engagement; (2) cognitive fatigue and emotional strain, encompassing reduced focus, memory difficulties and psychological distress; (3) school attendance, participation and support, highlighting frequent absenteeism, limited engagement in activities, and the critical role of institutional flexibility; (4) social identity and peer exclusion, revealing fears of stigma, self-isolation and misunderstanding from peers and (5) navigating the future, reflecting parental anxieties about long-term educational and career prospects alongside adaptive hope. The findings underscore that formal support systems in schools and healthcare settings are currently underdeveloped to meet these children’s complex needs.

This study illuminates the profound and multifaceted academic challenges faced by children after kidney transplantation. The results emphasise that a transplant is not merely a medical event but a life-altering experience with significant educational consequences. There is a critical need for integrated, targeted interventions that provide robust psychological support, flexible educational policies and comprehensive school reintegration programmes to ensure these children can achieve their full academic and personal potential.

Childbirth readiness can reflect women’s childbirth readiness in terms of knowledge, psychological aspects and planning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate childbirth readiness, its related factors and consequences in Iranian pregnant women.

This longitudinal study was the first stage (quantitative stage) of a sequential explanatory mixed-method study. It followed women during late pregnancy (from 37 weeks of gestation) and the postpartum period (4–6 weeks after childbirth) from March to September 2023.

Health centres of Tabriz, Iran.

This study involved 360 pregnant women with a gestational age of 37 weeks and above, selected via cluster sampling. Participants were excluded for high-risk pregnancies, unfavourable incidents in the last 3 months, mental-psychological diseases or a prior caesarean section.

Childbirth readiness and its related factors were assessed using several instruments completed from the 37th week of pregnancy onward, including the Childbirth Readiness Scale, a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Pregnancy Experience Scale and the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire Version A. The consequences of childbirth readiness were then evaluated 4–6 weeks post partum using the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Postpartum-Specific Anxiety Scale.

The mean (SD) childbirth readiness score was 67.83 (9.41) out of 90. In the adjusted general linear model (GLM), several factors were significantly associated with lower readiness. These included a higher fear of childbirth score (β –0.12, 95% CI –0.16 to –0.08, p

Key factors associated with readiness included fear of childbirth, obstetric history (gravidity, parity, history of abortion and participation in childbirth readiness classes), maternal education, home ownership, husband’s occupation—though several associations showed small effect sizes. After adjustment, readiness did not independently predict childbirth experience or postpartum mental health. The low participation rate in readiness courses highlights a major service gap. Integrating readiness assessment into prenatal care and expanding access to targeted education are recommended to improve outcomes such as birth satisfaction and caesarean rates.

In Canada, many families want to breastfeed, but there are several common challenges they may encounter. Currently, 91% of Canadian families initiate breastfeeding after giving birth, yet only 38% of babies are breastfed exclusively to 6 months. In 1991, the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada (BCC) was established to implement the World Health Organization’s Ten-Step Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a series of evidence-based in-hospital practices to support families to breastfeed. Then, in recognition of the need to support breastfeeding beyond the hospital setting, the BCC expanded the Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) to apply the Ten Steps to both hospitals and community health settings. However, uptake of the BFI Ten Steps in community settings has been low and methodology on how to optimise implementation of the Ten Steps in community is not well developed. Therefore, the objective of this project is to develop and evaluate a quality improvement collaborative with 25 community health services from across Canada to learn how to best support the implementation of the BFI Ten Steps in community, with the ultimate goal of improving breastfeeding outcomes.

This protocol describes the activities of the Community Baby-Friendly Initiative Collaborative (CBFI-C) and the methods used to evaluate its effectiveness. We will use the Institute for Healthcare Information Breakthrough Series (IHI-BTS) model, a proven quality improvement model that has been widely used in clinical settings, but is not yet widely used in community settings. The IHI-BTS combines three virtual learning sessions with action cycles that allow the participating sites time to test and track small practice changes. Sites will be asked to track care indicator and breastfeeding outcome data, engage in monthly webinars, receive coaching from trained mentors, participate in focus groups and participate in a final summative workshop. We will use a multi-site case study approach, combining aggregate care indicator data and qualitative data from webinars, focus groups and workshops to evaluate how the CBFI-C model supports community sites in the process of implementing the BFI Ten Steps.

Ethics approval for this evaluation was obtained from the CHIPER Health Research Ethics Board (Number HS26947-H2025:157)). The results of the CBFI-C evaluation will be shared in a report, peer-reviewed publications and presentations to government and academic audiences. The findings will inform effective quality improvement strategies to enhance uptake of the BFI in community health settings.

The study aims to explore the experiences of adolescent girls with the onset of their first menstruation in the context of Pakistan and to highlight the sociocultural aspects that shape those experiences.

The study employs an exploratory phenomenological approach.

This study has been conducted at a public sector higher education institute, University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Female students enrolled in the first semester of the undergraduate degree programme were included in the study using a predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Data was collected from six 18 years old girls who had their menarche in the last 6 years through face-to-face in-depth interviews using a semi-structured interview guide from June 2024 to August 2024. The interviews were audio-recorded given the written consent of the participants. Transcripts were analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s framework.

Thematic analysis of six interviews revealed three major themes: (1) Experience of first blood: emotional, social and practical difficulties; (2) The problem of mismanagement of first menstruation and the strategies used; and (3) Restrictions during menstruations. The study found that adolescent girls are provided with little to no prior knowledge regarding menarche and menstruation that causes various complexities and vulnerabilities. The social and cultural expectations and the gendered norms construct the experiences of the adolescent girls regarding their first menstruation, while the idea of womanhood is preserved in the society by restricting, isolating and alienating the adolescent girls and modifying their conduct and behaviour accordingly.

Menarche is often experienced as distressing, secretive and isolating for adolescent girls in Pakistan. Educational interventions in families and schools are needed to provide accurate, timely information and to support girls in navigating this transition with confidence and dignity.

This study aims to develop a methodology to retrieve, harmonise and evaluate the completeness of national body mass index (BMI) data from linked electronic health record (EHR) sources to build a longitudinal research-ready data asset (RRDA).

A longitudinal study of BMI records spanning 23 years (1 January 2000 to 31 December 2022) from four data sources.

The national BMI RRDA is created within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (Databank), encompassing the entire population of Wales, UK.

We built a methodology that provides a reproducible framework for extracting and harmonising BMI data from four major linked EHRs across two age groups: children and young people (CYP; 2–18 years old) and adults (19 years and older). The methodology is adaptable across different trusted research environments. We evaluated the completeness and retention of records over 1-, 5- and 23-year periods by calculating the proportion of missing data relative to each year’s population.

We retrieved 53.4 million records for 3.2 million individuals across Wales from 1st January 2000 to 31 December 2022. Among these, 3% of CYP and 34% of adults had repeat BMI measurements recorded over periods ranging from 5 to 23 years. Throughout the entire population of Wales during this period, 49% of CYP and 26% of adults had at least one BMI reading recorded, resulting in a missingness rate of 51% for CYP and 74% for adults. Preserving BMI information by retaining the most recently recorded BMI over 1-, 5- and 23-year intervals from 2022 showed coverage rates of 10%, 33% and 68%, respectively, for CYP, and 25%, 51% and 73%, respectively, for adults.

Our findings highlight substantial variations in BMI data availability and retention across CYP and adults, as well as time periods within EHR in Wales. Wider adoption of this approach can enhance standardised approaches in using accessible measures like BMI to assess disease risk in population-based studies, strengthening public health initiatives and research efforts.

This study aimed to estimate the frequency of depression in mothers during the antepartum and postpartum periods and identify predictors of perinatal depression in the tertiary care hospital of Karachi, Pakistan.

Analytical cross-sectional study.

Public Tertiary Care Hospital, Civil Hospital, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.

The study involved 262 mothers for the assessment of frequency and predictors of perinatal depression in Pakistan.

The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) was used as the tool to screen for depression. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire encompassing the sociodemographic factors, pregnancy and birth-related information, newborn characteristics sections, family relationship and marital status and psychosocial and psychological history. Mean and SD were computed for continuous data, whereas frequencies and percentages were determined for categorical data. Pearson ² test was applied to determine the association between categorical variables. Predictors of perinatal depression were identified through multivariate logistic regression.

Out of 262 enrolled mothers, 198 screened positive for depressive symptoms using EPDS with a cut-off value ≥10. The mean age of participating mothers was 27.4±5.95 years. Approximately 39.7% of the mothers were illiterate, 75% were housewives and about 42% had a family income of less than US$126. Women with access to a healthcare facility had higher odds of antepartum depression symptoms, possibly due to poor healthcare experiences during antenatal visits. Emotional support by husband reduces the odds by 45.8% while experiencing abuse increases odds by three times. Significant predictors of postpartum depression symptoms included decision-making power, which reduced the odds of postpartum depression symptoms by 72.5% and emotional support by 80%.

The study concluded that maternal decision-making power is a significant protective factor against postpartum depression. Strikingly, access to health facilities by the mother was associated with higher odds of antepartum depression. Other factors, including household income, husband’s employment status, domestic violence, emotional support and family abuse, did not show significant associations with either antepartum or postpartum depression. These findings emphasise the importance of routine screening to identify women at risk during the perinatal period.

Living with epilepsy, especially drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), imposes several challenges for people diagnosed with the condition. These challenges include the physical and mental implications of epilepsy on both caregivers and patients with epilepsy. For the more than 120 000 individuals living with this neurological disorder in the Netherlands, along with their families, daily activities become hazardous, limited and costly, significantly affecting their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). As data on the burden of epilepsy in the Netherlands are lacking, studies attempting to capture the impact of epilepsy on individuals, caregivers and society are needed to enhance understanding and help address the burden of epileptic seizures.

The study is part of the AIM@EPILEPSY project. The project aims to develop a planning suite enabling cost-saving, minimally invasive treatment for epilepsy. By surveying 330 people with epilepsy and an anticipated sample of 150–200 informal caregivers across the Netherlands, using standardised questionnaires focusing on associated societal costs and the impact on HRQoL, this bottom-up, prevalence-based prospective study aims to understand the societal burden of DRE in the Netherlands. The data will be collected at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months of follow-up. The study results will describe the economic impact of epilepsy, focusing on cost-of-illness () and HRQoL (utilities) in the Netherlands.

The proposed study was approved by the Maastricht University Medical Ethics Review Committee (Approval reference: FHML-REC/2024/067/Amendment/2024_16). The result of the study is planned to be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at international and local scientific conferences.

Childbirth can have psychological, social and emotional effects on women and their families. Psychological birth trauma (PBT) is defined as the emotional distress and mental health challenges resulting from negative or distressing experiences during the childbirth process. Labour management plays an important role in the health of women and children. Consequently, the study aims to assess the status of PBT among Iranian women, identify factors influencing it and suggest effective preventive strategies.

This study is a mixed-method research with an explanatory sequential approach. The first phase is quantitative and cross-sectional, involving 300 postpartum women visiting health centres in Tabriz-Iran. In this phase, cluster sampling will be used, and data will be collected using the following questionnaires: Sociodemographic and Obstetric Characteristics, Birth Trauma Scale, PTSD Symptom Scale 1, Perceived Quality of Care Scale, Childbirth Experience Questionnaire version 2.0, Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale, Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale Research Short-Form and the questionnaire on the desire for subsequent pregnancy. The second phase is qualitative, and participants will be selected based on the results of the quantitative phase and extreme cases, using purposive sampling. Data analysis will be performed using qualitative content analysis with a conventional approach. Qualitative data will be collected through in-depth and semi-structured individual interviews with open-ended questions. In the third phase, strategies to prevent childbirth psychological trauma will be designed by integrating the results of the quantitative and qualitative studies, reviewing the literature and gathering expert opinions using a modified Delphi study. Examining PBT and its influencing factors can provide culturally relevant, evidence-based strategies. These strategies can be effective in improving the quality of care for women during childbirth.

This study has received approval from the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Tabriz, Iran (code number: IR.TBZMED.REC.1402.945). All participants will provide written informed consent before taking part in the study. The outcomes will be shared through articles published in journals, presentations at medical conferences, the validation of a reliable scale for assessing the level of PBT in postpartum women, and the provision of strategies to prevent childbirth psychological trauma. These resources will be valuable for policymakers and healthcare providers.