BACKGROUND AND AIM Breastfeeding is an important factor in the reduction of death and disease attaching during neonatal period. Mother's nipple sore (MNS) makes the breast feeding experience unpleasant and even leads to the lack of continuity in lactation. We wanted to study the effect of chamomile ointment on the healing of breastfeeding mothers' nipple sore. METHODS This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 106 eligible women who visited the selected health centers affiliated to Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Alborz, Iran, from November 2017 to May 2018. For creating randomization list, the method of permuted block randomization with a block size of four, was applied. A total of 106 subjects were randomly divided into two equal groups of 53 women grouped as chamomile ointment group and lanolin ointment group. For severity of nipple fissure, Storr scale was used, and to measure the intensity of pain, visual analog scale (VAS) was used. We compared outcomes between the two groups using repeated measures ANOVA. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used for comparing outcomes between the two groups adjusted on the baseline measures. Analysis of data done by SPSS software, version 22 and also p-value<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS The two study groups were balanced based on the baseline demographic characteristics. The evaluation of statistical analysis in order to compare the score mean of nipple sore symptoms (NSS), and nipple sore pain (NSP), 3-and 7-days after intervention indicated that the reduction of NSP in lanolin group was 1.87 ± 0.14, and chamomile group was 0.47 ± 0.14, with a p-value<0/001. Reduction of NSS in lanolin group was 0.99 ± 0.09, and chamomile group was 0.70± 0.09, with p-value<0/041. Reduction of NSP & NSS was significant after treatment with chamomile ointment. CONCLUSIONS The present study showed that chamomile ointment was more effective than lanolin in healing and controlling MNS during oneweek follow-up, without resulting in any side effects.

Infertility is one of the most important life crises that leads to numerous psychological problems and stressful experiences. Investigating the factors affecting infertility is of high significance to help these people in the midwifery profession. One of these important factors is lifestyle. The purpose of present study is to review the studies conducted on the effects of lifestyle on infertility in couples. This systematic review was conducted by searching the keywords including infertility, lifestyle, nutrition and couples in valid databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Sciences, PubMed and Scopus from 2010 to 2021; a total of 198 articles were found. As many as 22 articles were extracted from these articles. Inclusion criteria included originality, the article’s being either in English or Persian, and consistency with the purpose of the study. Exclusion criteria included the lack of access to the full text of the article. Among the reviewed articles, 6 articles (27.27%) had been published in Persian and 16 articles (72.73%) had been published in English. In 16 studies, the effect of lifestyle and its dimensions (exercise and physical activity, diet, tobacco and alcohol use) on infertility of couples had been confirmed.