This thesis examines the formative years (1931-1940) of Canada's first birth control clinic, the Birth Control Society of Hamilton (BCSH). The focus of this work is to place the activities of the BCSH in an international and national context. Canada's first birth control clinic drew directly on the writings and experience of two well known birth control pioneers, the American Margaret Sanger and the English woman Marie Stopes. This reliance on foreign models demonstrates the enormous influence that the British and Americans had on the formation of Canadian social and medical institutions. This thesis also challenges the traditional perception of the BCSH as a low key and non-ideological endeavour. New historical evidence indicates that the BCSH shared in the eugenic ideology of other contemporary Canadian birth control organizations and was an active participant in the debates surrounding contraception and eugenics.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 449-459).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-232).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1991.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-171). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Also available in print.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Although the Kenyan government implemented safe motherhood programme two decades ago, available data indicate that prevalence of home delivery is still high among women in Garissa District. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the factors influencing the choice of place of childbirth. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 224 women who delivered babies two years prior to December 2010. Using a statcalc program in Epi Info 3.3.2, with expected frequency of home delivery at 83% +5% and a 95% confidence level, the calculated sample size was 215. Furthermore, with a 95% response rate the adjusted minimum sample size was 226.There were two none-responses hence 224 women were interviewed. Stratified sampling was used. Data were collected using pre-tested structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed. A binary logistic regression analysis using the Enter method was performed to determine independent predictors for use or non-use of healthcare services for childbirth. The threshold for statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results: The result was presented in text and tables. The study found 67% (n=224) women delivered at home and 33% delivered in hospital. The study found low level of education, poverty, none-attendance of ANC, distance, cost of services, poor quality services, negative attitude towards midwives, experience of previous obstetric complications and decision-making to be significant predictors in home delivery at the bivariate level (p<0.05). The study did not find relationship between age, marital status, religion and place of childbirth (p>0.05). At multivariate level, the following variables were still found to be significant predictors of home delivery: no education OR=8.36 (95% CI; 4.12-17.17), no occupation OR=1.43(95% CI; 1.08–5.49) experience of obstetric complications OR=1.38 (95% CI; 1.15-2.12), none-attendance of antenatal clinic OR=1.11 (95% CI; 1.03–1.51), Rude midwives OR=5.60 (95% CI; 2.66-11.96). Conclusions: high prevalence of home delivery was noted due to lack of education, poverty and inaccessible maternity services hence the need to empower women in education and economy to enhance hospital delivery.

The phenomenon of seasonality of birth in schizophrenia is important in the study of the etiology of this mental disorder because it helps to give directions for further research. Patients' hospital files from 1981 to 1991 of two of the largest hospitals with psychiatric wards in Taiwan were reviewed, and dates of birth collected on 3346 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. After adjusting for the variations of the total monthly births in the population, an Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was applied. Results support a seasonality phenomenon and indicate a disproportional excess of births in schizophrenia in the cold months (Nov. to Feb.) compared to the hot months (May to Aug.). These findings are compatible with many other studies in other countries and climates. Further investigations of season-related environmental factors in the etiology of schizophrenia are recommended.

Free-standing birth centres (FSBCs) were formed in Ontario in 2014 and operate with the support of birth centre aides (BCAs), a novel birth worker role. As a recent introduction to the Ontario maternity care system, there have been no academic inquiries into BCAs and only a hand full of investigations on birth centres (Mattison, 2015; Mattison et al., 2020; Murray-Davis et al., 2014; Sprague et al., 2018). From a feminist perspective, an analysis of the BCA role offers a unique opportunity to conduct a feminist analysis of work in healthcare between largely women care providers (i.e., midwives and BCAs), leadership, and reproductive justice activism. My dissertation consists of three standalone papers based on empirical data gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews and document analysis at the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre (OBWC). For my first paper, “Mapping the Development of Birth Centre Aides at the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre”, I applied a feminist sociology of professions framework (Davies, 1996; Witz, 1992) and employed an institutional ethnographic methodology (Smith, 1990) to understand how the BCA role was developed and operationalized in the OBWC. I mapped the development of the BCA role at the OBWC descriptively and visually using the documentary and interview data with key stakeholders from the OBWC (n=16), including BCAs, administrators, and midwives. In the second paper, “Feminist Leadership in Healthcare: The Case of Birth Centre Aides and the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre,” I integrated Tronto’s (1993) ethic of care with Dickson and Tholl’s (2014) LEADS in a Caring Environment leadership framework in an instrumental case study (Stake, 2005) to understand how BCAs lead from their position within the OBWC and how they experience feminist leadership practices in the OBWC. Finally, in my third paper, “Birth Work as Reproductive Activism: The Case of Birth Centre Aides at the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre,” I applied a reproductive justice theoretical framework (Ross, 2017; SisterSong, 2015) through an instrumental case study (Stake, 2005) to understand how BCAs undertake quiet reproductive activism at the OBWC. Taken together, my dissertation offers new knowledge on the role and development of BCAs in the OBWC and contributes to advancing feminist scholarship on healthcare leadership and reproductive justice activism.

Background: Adolescent female depressive symptomatology is an unrecognized mood disorder that impairs health in adolescence or adulthood. However, the long-term effects of pre-pregnancy depressive symptoms on birth outcomes in adulthood have not been given adequate empirical assessments. Method: In this study, we assessed the relationship between the life time duration of depressive symptoms over a 14-year period and birth outcomes (LBW and PTB) among a sample of 6023 female respondents who took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). We used the generalized estimating equation (GEE) models to assess these relationships. Results: Exposure to elevated depressive symptoms in late adolescence, but not in adulthood, was associated with increased odds of LBW by more than 2-fold in early and young adulthoods (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.19; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.56, 3.08). Depressive symptoms in early adulthood were independently associated with increased odds of PTB and were higher for black mothers. Maternal race modified the relationship between consistent reporting of depressive symptoms in adolescence and LBW or PTB in adulthood. Conclusion: This study provides compelling evidence that effects of elevated depressive symptomatology on LBW or PTB appear to be linked to a specific development period in adolescence. National policies to address social inequalities and stratification particularly in health at all stages of human development, will provide an important step in reducing depressive symptoms prior to early adulthood and in pregnancy and childbirth.