Postpartum care of the mother and newborn: a practical guide. Technical Working Group, World Health Organization.
This paper defines the needs of women and their newborns, and classifies a number of practices common in postpartum care. It is a summary of the report, Postpartum Care of the Mother and Newborn: A Practical Guide, which was developed by a Technical Working Group of the World Health Organization and published in 1998. The report takes a comprehensive view of maternal and newborn needs during the postpartum period, examining major maternal and neonatal health challenges, nutrition and breastfeeding, birth spacing, immunization, HIV/AIDS, and the essential elements of care and service provision. The document lists recommendations, and classifies common practices in the postpartum period, dividing them into four categories: those which are useful, those which are harmful, those for which insufficient evidence exists, and those which are frequently used inappropriately.
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017283:Neonatal Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D011247:Pregnancy