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Background: The Women's Health Needs Study (WHNS) collected information on the health characteristics, needs, and experiences, including female genital mutilation (FGM) experiences, attitudes, and beliefs, of women aged 18 to 49 years who were born, or whose mothers were born, in a country where FGM is prevalent living in the US. The purpose of this paper is to describe the WHNS design, methods, strengths and limitations, as well as select demographic and health-related characteristics of participants. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey from November 2020 –June 2021 in four US metropolitan areas, using a hybrid venue-based sampling (VBS) and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) approach to identify women for recruitment. Results: Of 1,132 participants, 395 were recruited via VBS and 737 RDS. Most were born, or their mothers were born, in either a West African country (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, The Gambia) (39.0%) or Ethiopia (30.7%). More than a third were aged 30–39 years (37.5%) with a majority who immigrated at ages ≥13 years (86.6%) and had lived in the United States for ≥5 years (68.9%). Medicaid was the top health insurer (52.5%), followed by private health insurance (30.5%); 17% of participants had no insurance. Nearly half of women reported 1–2 healthcare visits within the past 12 months (47.7%). One in seven did not get needed health care due to cost (14.8%). Over half have ever used contraception (52.1%) to delay or avoid pregnancy and 76.9% had their last pelvic and/or Papanicolaou (pap) exam within the past 3 years. More than half experienced FGM (55.0%). Nearly all women believed that FGM should be stopped (92.0%). Conclusion: The VBS/RDS approach enabled recruitment of a diverse study population. WHNS advances research related to the health characteristics, needs, and experiences of women living in the US from countries where FGM is prevalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors comment on the target article by J. Connor and colleagues about how women with female genital cutting (FGC) may experience sexual pain and how providers can use this knowledge as they collaborate with women to promote sexual health. Topics include how the potential for harm and risk related to FGC is best understood, the need for efforts to improve the services to women and girls affected, and the failure of law enforcement approaches in preventing FGC to achieve their goal.

Days after COVID‐19 physical distancing precautions were implemented, a coalition of community leaders in Baltimore City founded the Baltimore Neighbors Network (BNN), a volunteer network established to provide proactive phone‐based support to older adults in Baltimore City. BNN was a community‐driven approach aimed at reducing social isolation and improving health equity both during the pandemic and long‐term. This paper describes how the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing's (JHUSON) public health nursing clinical faculty and students partnered with BNN to support a community‐driven crisis response effort while creatively meeting student learning objectives. While engaging in the work of BNN remotely, nursing students were able to meet competencies across all eight domains of the Quad Council Coalition of Public Health Nursing Organizations. Schools of Nursing throughout the country can use this partnership as a model of a service‐learning strategy for public health nursing education during a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Common perinatal mental disorders are prevalent in low‐ and middle‐income countries. The gap between the need for and availability of mental health services, also known as the mental health treatment gap, is particularly acute for women during the perinatal period in rural Mali. This qualitative study aimed to identify a feasible and acceptable integrated care approach for the provision of maternal mental health care in rural Mali to help narrow the treatment gap and increase access to care. Methods: From April to June 2016, qualitative data were collected in the Sélingué health district and Bamako, Mali. In‐depth interviews were conducted among women, community health workers, midwives, and mental health specialists. Focus group participants included community health workers, midwives, and an obstetric nurse. All data were inductively coded and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: Women described several coping strategies to manage their distress, including visiting their parents; confiding in a friend, relative, or community health worker; and participating in women's association groups. Mental health‐related stigma was described as being widespread in the community and among health providers. In response to the lack of mental health services, midwives and community health workers supported the feasibility and acceptability of the integration of mental health services into maternal health services. Midwives were discussed as being key providers to conduct mental health screenings and provide initial psychosocial care for women. Discussion: Integrated maternal and mental health interventions are needed to narrow the gap between the need for and availability of mental health services in rural Mali. Findings from this study underscore the great need for mental health services for women in the perinatal period who reside in rural Mali and that it is both feasible and acceptable to integrate mental health screening and low‐level psychosocial care into antenatal care, delivered by midwives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To examine whether there is a threshold of oxytocin exposure at which the risk for primary cesarean increases among women who are nulliparous with a term, singleton, vertex fetus (NTSV) and how oxytocin interacts with other risk factors to contribute to this outcome. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the Consortium on Safe Labor data set that used a retrospective cohort study design. Women who met the criteria for NTSV who were not admitted for a prelabor cesarean and for whom oxytocin data were available, were included in the sample. Robust logistic regression was used to examine the association of oxytocin exposure with primary cesarean birth, while controlling for demographic and clinical risk factors and clustering by provider. Results: The sample comprised 17,331 women who were exposed to oxytocin during labor. The women were predominantly white non‐Hispanic (59.2%) with an average (SD) gestational age of 39.4 (1.1) weeks and an 18.5% primary cesarean rate. Exposure to greater than 11,400‐milliunits (mU) of oxytocin resulted in 1.6 times increased odds of primary cesarean birth compared with less than 11,400 mU (95% CI 1.01‐2.6). Discussion: Exposure to greater than 11,400 mU of oxytocin in labor was associated with an increased odds of primary cesarean birth in NTSV women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses pose significant public health and safety risks for students. This study explored survivors' perspectives on secondary prevention of campus sexual assault and effective strategies for intervention programs for unwanted sexual incidents in university settings. Twenty-seven student survivors of unwanted sexual experiences participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and a constructionist perspective. The findings were contextualized using the ecological model. Barriers to reporting included concerns about one's story not being believed, personal minimization of the incident, belief that no action will be taken after reporting, confidentiality concerns, and other perceived costs of reporting. Survivors provided valuable insight on potentially effective prevention and intervention strategies to address the problem of unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses. These findings may be useful for prevention and intervention policies and programs in university settings and for providers who assist survivors of unwanted sexual experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]