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Introduction: Breast cancer may have a significant impact on the psychosocial well-being, not only of the women diagnosed, but also on their family members. Aim: The purpose of this review and narrative synthesis is to investigate the affect of breast cancer on women and their family. Methods: The electronic databases Scopus, Psycinfo, Science Direct and Pubmed were searched during the period 2010-2020. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and the PICO framework with Boolean operators. Of the 1126 articles identified, only 35 were used in the final configuration of the systematic review, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria that were set. Results: The 35 articles that were finally included in this review focused mainly on the relationship of women with breast cancer with their family. More specifically, family seems to play a significant role for women with breast cancer. Dynamics and roles among the family members are affected and burdened because of the disease. Family caregivers provide support to women with breast cancer, and patients receiving family care seem to respond more effectively to their treatment and manage to cope with their illness. Both breast cancer patients and family caregivers seek psychosocial support. Breast cancer can also have a detrimental effect on their family caregivers, their partners and the extended family. Conclusion: A supportive family may a have a positive impact on patients’ psychosocial wellbeing. Providing psychosocial support to both patients and family members may significantly improve the quality of life for the whole family.

Introduction Rising rates of caesarean section (CS) is an issue of particular concern. Recently, there has been research supporting Vaginal Births After Caesarean (VBAC), which is controversial. In Greece, over half of births in the country are by CS, placing Greece among countries with the highest CS rates. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and the factors associated with VBACs and to compare the maternal/neonatal outcomes with a 'non-caesarean' control group. Methods The data were evaluated and retrospectively gathered on archived singleton births, from medical records of a midwifery-led team, between May 2006 and May 2013. The target group of the study included mothers with a previous CS, who had a second birth. The sample consisted of 71 VBAC women and 583 who had normal spontaneous vaginal delivery (NSVD) as the 'non-caesarean' control group. Results The duration of labour was longer for the VBACs compared with first-time mothers who gave birth naturally (for duration 481-720 min, 27% vs 10.3%, respectively), episiotomy was more common for VBAC (20.7% vs 7.9%), and epidural analgesia was more often for VBAC (68.4% vs 10%). The percentage of 1-min Apgar score in the range 0-7 in the VBAC group was 5%, and there was no significant difference in women who had NSVD (3.6%). The Apgar score in the 5th minute was always above 8 for both groups. Conclusions Severe maternal and neonatal complications are infrequent, and therefore the necessity arises for further continuous studies to ascertain the safety of VBAC.