The early recognition of possible labour onset symptoms may be pivotal to identifying the beginning of early labour and are usually recognised by the birthing women themselves. The present study illustrates the interrelationship among five labour-onset symptoms and explores the association of these labour-onset symptoms with the self-diagnosed labour onset of primiparas.
A prospective cohort study on a sample of 69 primigravida in Giessen, Germany, expecting spontaneous onset of labour at term. The participants filled in a diary from ≥37 + 0 weeks gestation until self-diagnosed labour onset. Descriptive, bivariate and inferential analysis explored association of labour onset symptoms with self-diagnosed labour onset while accounting for maternal and newborn characteristics.
Self-diagnosed labour onset was positively associated with all symptoms and clinical characteristics, apart from irregular pain and maternal weight and age. Moreover, regular pain was negatively correlated with irregular pain; having regular pain increased the odds of self-diagnosed labour onset substantially (OR: 10.18, 95 % CI: 2.39–66.27), followed by gastrointestinal symptoms (OR: 2.07, 95 % CI: 0.40–13.10) and emotional symptoms (OR: 2.05, 95% CI: 0.30–13.98).
Being the initiator of intrapartum care without any birth experience, primiparas are prone to experiencing dissatisfaction in care and may enter professional care too late or too early. The present study showed that regular pain may signify primiparas to self-diagnose labour onset within 24 h and indicate early labour symptoms that may be relevant for a self-diagnosed labour onset.
Hysterectomy is one of the common surgical procedures for women in the United States. Studies show that hysterectomy is associated with elevated risk of developing chronic conditions, which may cause financial toxicity in patients. This study aimed to assess whether women who underwent hysterectomy had a higher risk of experiencing medical financial hardship compared to women who didn’t.
Using data on 32,823 adult women from the 2019 and 2021 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, we estimated binomial and multinomial logistic regressions to assess the relationship between hysterectomy and financial hardship, defined as problems paying or unable to pay any medical bills. Further, we performed a Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition to examine whether the association could be explained by chronic comorbidity.
While the prevalence of financial hardship was 13.6 % among all women, it was 16.2 % among women who underwent a hysterectomy. The adjusted odds of experiencing medical financial hardship among women with a hysterectomy were 1.36 (95 % CI: 1.22–1.52) times that of their counterparts who did not have a hysterectomy. The KHB decomposition suggested that 34.5 % of the size of the effect was attributable to chronic conditions. Women who had a hysterectomy were also 1.45 (95 % CI: 1.26–1.67) times more likely to have unpaid medical debts.
Our results suggested that women, who underwent a hysterectomy in the US, were vulnerable to medical financial hardship. Policy makers and health professionals should be made aware of this issue to help women coping against this adversity.