Pre-eclampsia is associated with an imbalance of members of the TGF-β superfamily and their soluble receptors, which might contribute to the development of pre-eclampsia and help to predict onset and severity.

Objective. At present, the clinical effect of music therapy combined with free position to assist delivery is rarely reported. Based on evidence-based nursing, this study is aimed at exploring the effect of the combination of music therapy and free position delivery on labor pain and maternal and fetal outcomes. Methods. A total of 440 primiparas with vaginal delivery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University between July 2018 and July 2019 were selected. They were divided into music therapy, free position delivery group ( n = 201 ) and traditional delivery group ( n = 239 ). Subsequently, the two groups were compared in terms of the Chinese Perception of Labor Pain Questionnaire (PLPQ) score, bleeding amount at 2 hours after birth, perineal injury, labor stage duration, and 1 minute Apgar score. Results. The combination group had better results of the Chinese PLPQ score, postpartum hemorrhage, and perineum condition. However, compared with traditional delivery, a longer duration of the first stage and total stage of labor was found in the combination group. Music therapy combined with free position delivery required less medical intervention during delivery, and there was no significant difference in 1 minute Apgar score between the two groups. Conclusions. Music therapy combined with free position delivery, an intervention based on evidence-based nursing, can effectively reduce maternal labor pain, postpartum hemorrhage, soft birth canal injury, and medical intervention during labor. It is, therefore, a safe intervention to assist delivery.

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Background The public health and economic implications of perinatal mental health problems are well documented. Maternity clinicians are ideally placed to effectively identify women at risk and facilitate early intervention. However, in China as globally a number of issues are implicated in a failure to recognise and treat. Aim The present study sought to develop and evaluate the Chinese version ‘professional issues in maternal mental health’ scale (PIMMHS), explore its psychometric properties and potential application. Methods A cross-sectional design and instrument translation and evaluation approach was taken to investigate the psychometric properties of the PIMMHS in a Chinese population. A total of 598 obstetricians, obstetric nurses, and midwives participated in this study from 26 hospitals across China. Findings The Chinese PIMMHS was not a good fit to the original two factor model. The emotion/communication subscale yielded an excellent fit to the data according to all fit indices, offering compelling evidence for a single factor solution. The training (PIMMHS: Training), proved problematic throughout the analysis with divergent validity for the training subscale also being poor with a concomitant impact on the total scale performance. The performance of this subscale may be related to the nature of medical training and PMH. Conclusion The Chinese PIMMHS comprises a unidimensional scale of emotion/ communication, which is simple and may provide insight into the emotional burden of providing PMH care, with the potential to mitigate that burden. Further development and investigation of the training sub-scale could be of value.