Nearly half a million preterm infants are born each year in the United States. Preterm delivery has significant psychosocial implications for mothers, particularly when their baby spends time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The decrease in length of gestation causes mothers to have to parent prematurely, without the less time for emotional preparation than mothers of full-term infants. Parents of NICU infants experience stress related to feelings of helplessness, exclusion and alienation, and lack sufficient knowledge regarding parenting and interacting with their infants in the NICU. There are a number of interventions that nurses can do that help reduce the stress of mothers of infants in the NICU.

Congenital toxoplasmosis is a rare, but potentially serious, problem during pregnancy. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a protozoal parasite that can be found in warm-blooded animals (including humans); dried cat feces, contaminated soil, or contaminated water; and raw or undercooked meat containing infective tissue cysts. Although cats play a role in the epidemiology of the disease, there is no statistical correlation between toxoplasmosis infection and cat ownership. Toxoplasmosis can be transmitted to the fetus in utero through transplacental transmission. Both the incidence of placental transmission and severity of congenital disease depend on gestational age at which maternal seroconversion occurs. Although transmission rates from mother to fetus tend to be low early in pregnancy, fetal disease severity is highest when the fetus is infected early in gestation. Serological tests to determine maternal seroconversion are available, but their use can pose ethical and practical dilemmas. Universal maternal screening is not currently warranted in the United States because disease prevalence is low.

Cookin' Up Health is a culturally targeted and individualized tailored nutrition intervention using a computer-based interactive format. Using a cooking show theme, the program demonstrates step-by-step meal preparation emphasizing healthy selection and portion control. Focus groups were conducted with women in two rural counties in West Virginia to guide the development of the intervention. Women felt more susceptible to heart disease because the changing role of women creates more stress and less time; weight loss was a greater motivator for dietary change than was preventing heart disease; social support is a barrier and facilitator for dietary change; cultural heritage and the way women were raised were major barriers to making health changes as adults; convenience and the cost of eating healthier were major factors when trying to make changes in diet; and women did not feel confident in their ability to maintain dietary changes.

Practitioners must continue to remind and update women about breast disease, and women's cancer-screening practices must be reinforced. All levels of providers should improve their rates of performing clinical breast examinations with physical examinations. Nurses, who greatly influence women's health care, must remain current in their knowledge of breast disease, screening, and treatment.

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