Background: During the post-partum period, due to the lack of knowledge about post-partum complications and care, women, especially primiparous women, lack the adequate skills to adapt to new conditions and have no confidence to care for themselves and their infants. The early mothers' assessment, education, counseling, and nursing interventions can increase their adaptation and reduce their incompatible responses to their infant and partner. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effect of early self-care based education program on primiparous women’s self-evaluation. Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted from May to October 2018 on 58 primiparous women referred to the Neonatal Screening Center in Karaj (IRAN). A random allocation method was applied to select intervention and control groups. The data were collected using a three-part questionnaire consisting of general, developmental, and health deviation post-partum evaluation made by researchers. The intervention group received three education sessions throughout the 3 - 5, 10 - 15, and 17 - 22 days after childbirth. The control group received routine post-partum care. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviation, and absolute frequency) and statistical tests (including t-test, paired t-test, and chi-square) or non-parametric statistical tests (e.g., the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney test) using SPSS version 19. Results: Before the intervention, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean total self-evaluation scores between the intervention (131.269 ± 12.742) and control (137 ± 9.600) groups (P-value = 0.073), but six weeks after delivery, a significant difference was observed in the mean self-evaluation scores between the intervention (149.692 ± 7.625) and control (122.923 ± 11.495) groups (P-value < 0.001). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that early self-care education program was effective for primiparous women's self-evaluation and increased the post-partum adaptation of the women.

Background: Despite the implementation of the Health Transformation Plan in recent years, the cesarean section (CS) rate has increased in private and public centers in Iran. Accordingly, Iran is the first among the four countries in the world with the highest CS rate. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the non-obstetric causes of CS in mothers who were referred to the Medical Services Commission of Alborz province, Iran, to review their requests for CS. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 312 subjects were selected based on a census of all clients by the Midwifery Office of Alborz province, whose requests for CS for non-obstetric reasons were submitted to the Medical Services Commission in 2020. The information in this study was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire containing 26 items in two sociodemographic and medical sections. Results: The highest frequency of sociodemographic factors was observed for the age range of 20 - 30 years (n = 163, 52.2%), the educational level of diploma and higher (n = 236, 75.6%), urban residence (n = 274, 87.8%), and no complementary insurance (n = 258, 82.7%). The frequency distribution of the non-obstetric reasons of the participants was reported as 83 (26.6%), 60 (19.2%), 25 (8%), 24 (7.7%), 20 (6.4%), 14 (4.5%), and 86 (27.6%) for lumbar disc disease, eye diseases, repeat CS, genital warts, in vitro fertilization, fear of childbirth pain, and other causes, respectively. There was a significant association between the reason for requesting CS and the age group (P < 0.001), the type of insurance (P = 0.043), and the mother’s educational level (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In the present study, most of the women in the younger age group and non-employees requested a CS for non-obstetric reasons.