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Background: Early labour care often insufficiently addresses the individual needs of pregnant women leading to great dissatisfaction. In-depth knowledge about symptoms of onset of labour and early labour is necessary to develop women-centred interventions., Question or Aim: To provide an overview on the current evidence about pregnant women's symptoms of onset of labour and early labour., Methods: We conducted a scoping review in the five databases PubMed, Web of Science, CINHAL Complete, PsychInfo and MIDIRS in May 2021 and August 2022 using a sensitive search strategy. A total of 2861 titles and abstracts and 290 full texts were screened independently by two researchers using Covidence. For this article, data was extracted from 91 articles and summarised descriptively and narratively., Findings: The most frequently mentioned symptoms were 'Contractions, labour pain' (n = 78, 85.7 %), 'Details about the contractions' (n = 51 articles, 56.0 %), 'Positive and negative emotions' (n = 50, 54.9 %) and 'Fear and worries' (n = 48 articles, 52.7 %). Details about the contractions ranged from a slight pulling to unbearable pain and the emotional condition varied from joy to great fear, showing an extraordinary diversity of symptoms highlighting the very individual character of early labour., Discussion: A comprehensive picture of varying and contradicting symptoms of onset of labour and early labour was drawn. Different experiences indicate different needs. This knowledge builds a good basis to develop women-centred approaches to improve early labour care., Conclusion: Further research is necessary to design individualised early labour interventions and evaluate their effectiveness., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement None declared., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) assesses postnatal quality of life (QoL) without providing a predefined checklist, thus offering mothers the opportunity to identify areas of life affected by having a baby., Aim: To identify: (a) details and particularities of areas of life affected after childbirth and thus specific domains defining postnatal quality of life; (b) changes in the importance of domains specifying QoL within the first weeks postpartum; and (c) the potential role of cultural differences with regard to the nature of QoL definitions., Methods: Prospective, cross-cultural, longitudinal survey. We applied a qualitative content analysis to Mother-Generated Index data collected in Switzerland and Germany using combined deductively and inductively category building., Results: Women participated at three days (n=124) and six and a half weeks (n=82) postpartum. Eleven domains were identified, each with several subdomains: 'physical well-being' (e.g. fatigue), 'psychological well-being' (e.g. happiness, emotional confusion), 'general well-being', 'motherhood' (e.g. bonding with the baby), 'family and partnership' (e.g. time for partner and children), 'social life' (e.g. friends, being isolated), 'everyday life' (e.g. organisation daily routine), 'leisure' (e.g. less time), 'work life' (e.g. worries about job), 'financial issues' (e.g. less money), and further aspects. The most frequently indicated domains were 'motherhood' and 'family and partnership'. Differences between the stages of assessment and countries were identified., Discussion: Mothers faced challenges in defining their new role but welcomed the slowdown in the rhythm of life and experienced overwhelming maternal feelings., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that postnatal quality of life is a concept that changes over time and differs between countries., (Copyright © 2018 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Problem and Background: Vaginal birth after caesarean section is a safe option for the majority of women. Seeking women's views can be of help in understanding factors of importance for achieving vaginal birth in countries where the vaginal birth rates after caesarean is low., Aim: To investigate women's views on important factors to improve the rate of vaginal birth after caesareanin countries where vaginal birth rates after previous caesarean are low., Methods: A qualitative study using content analysis. Data were gathered through focus groups and individual interviews with 51 women, in their native languages, in Germany, Ireland and Italy. The women were asked five questions about vaginal birth after caesarean. Data were translated to English, analysed together and finally validated in each country., Findings: Important factors for the women were that all involved in caring for them were of the same opinion about vaginal birth after caesarean, that they experience shared decision-making with clinicians supportive of vaginal birth, receive correct information, are sufficiently prepared for a vaginal birth, and experience a culture that supports vaginal birth after caesarean., Discussion and Conclusion: Women's decision-making about vaginal birth after caesarean in these countries involves a complex, multidimensional interplay of medical, psychosocial, cultural, personal and practical considerations. Further research is needed to explore if the information deficit women report negatively affects their ability to make informed choices, and to understand what matters most to women when making decisions about vaginal birth after a previous caesarean as a mode of birth., (Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)