In collaboration with Consulting Editor, Dr. William Rayburn, Dr. Paul Gluck has put together a state-of the-art issue of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America devoted to Patient Safety in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Clinical review articles from expert authors are specifically devoted to the following topics: The Patient Experience and Safety; The Certification Process Driving Patient Safety; Just Culture and Patient Safety; Patient's Role in Patient Safety; Implementing Patient Safety Initiatives; Eliminating Disparities In Perinatal Care; Transparency and Disclosure; Leadership and Teams; Emerging Role of Drills and Simulations in Patient Safety; California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative: The Power of Collaboration; Role of the Patient Safety Organization in Advancing Patient Safety; Office of Patient Safety; Applying Patient Safety to Reduce Maternal Mortality; Benefits and Pitfalls of Ultrasound in Ob/Gyns; Obstetrical Anesthesia; Patient Safety in Outpatient Procedures; and Safety in Minimally Invasive Surgery. Readers will come away with the latest information they need to improve outcomes and safety in obstetric and gynecologic patients.

This issue of Surgical Pathology Clinics, Guest Edited by Dr. Brooke Howitt, will focus on practical issues and updates around Gynecologic Pathology. This issue is one of four selected each year by the series Consulting Editor, Jason L. Hornick. Topics include, but are not limited to, Non-HPV associated squamous neoplasia of the vulva and vagina; HPV-associated squamous neoplasia of the lower female genital tract; Cervical glandular neoplasia: classification and staging; Preinvasive lesions of the endometrium; Endometrial carcinoma: Grossing, frozen section evaluation, staging, and senitnel lymph node evaluation; High grade endometrial carcinomas: Classification with molecular insights; Uterine mesenchymal tumors: Classification, staging, and updates in molecular testing; Smooth muscle neoplasia of the female genital tract; Germ cell tumors of the female genital tract; Fallopian tube neoplasia and mimics; Low grade serous neoplasia of the female genital tract; Ovarian high grade serous carcinoma: Staging, assessing site of origin and the post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy setting; Ovarian mucinous tumors; Endometrioid and clear cell tumors of the ovary; and Ovarian sex cord stromal tumors.

In consultation with Consulting Editor Dr. William Rayburn, Dr. Santor and Dr. Kravitz have put together an issue that comprehensively covers age-related changes in women. Their authors, from well-respected institutions, have contributed review articles on the following topics: Declining fertility with reproductive aging: How to protect your patient's fertility by knowing the milestones; Onset of the transition into menopause: What are the earliest signs; Menstrual cycle changes as women approach the final menses: What matters; Menstrual cycle hormone changes and how they may link to symptoms; Symptom progression across the transition: Not all women are created equal; Cardiovascular implications of vasomotor symptoms and the menopausal transition; Depression and perimenopause :Hormones, genetics and environmental determinants of disease; Sleep, health, and metabolism: Food for thought; Bone health during the menopausal transition and beyond; Sexuality in midlife and beyond; Physical function -moving and aging; Genitourinary changes with aging; and Cognitive changes with reproductive aging, perimenopause, and menopause. Readers will come away with the latest clinical information they need to treat these patients and improve outcomes.

Childbed fever was by the far the most common cause of deaths associated with childbirth up to the Second World War, throughout Britain and Europe. Otherwise known as puerperal fever, it was an infection which followed childbirth and caused thousands of miserable and agonizing deaths every year. This book provides the first detailed account of this tragic disease from its recognition in the eighteenth century up to the second half of the twentieth century, examining it within a fully comprehensive history of infective diseases.

Women's health comprises a large range of activities including fertility and reproductive health and screening and treatment for gynecological conditions, with computer systems providing vital support. Medical Informatics in Obstetrics and Gynecology provides industry knowledge and insight to challenges in the areas of informatics that are important to women's health. Covering topics such as ethical and legal issues, imaging and communication systems, and electronic health records, this Medical Information Science Reference publication provides medical libraries and researchers, as well as medical students, health technology specialists, and practicing physicians and nurses with unrivaled data on the role of technology in obstetrics and gynecology.

This book describes in fascinating detail the history of the use of anesthesia in childbirth and in so doing offers a unique perspective on the interaction between medical science and social values. Dr. Donald Caton traces the responses of physicians and their patients to the pain of childbirth from the popularization of anesthesia to the natural childbirth movement and beyond. He finds that physicians discovered what could be done to manage pain, and patients decided what would be done. Dr. Caton discusses how nineteenth-century physicians began to think and act like scientists; how people learned to reject the belief that pain and suffering are inevitable components of life; and how a later generation came to think that pain may have important functions for the individual and society. Finally he shows the extent to which cultural and social values have influenced "scientific" medical decisions.

Vulvar disorders are prevalent but often overlooked conditions in the curricula of obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, and primary care residency training programs. This has led many outpatient clinicians to feel unprepared to evaluate the patient with a vulvar complaint. Often patients with complex, chronic vulvar disorders have seen multiple providers in consultation before they are appropriately diagnosed and treated, leading to frustration amongst patients and providers alike as well as excessive health care costs. The goal of this issue is to present a practical review on vulvar disease for outpatient clinicians to improve patient care. The topics highlighted in this issue represent gaps in knowledge among residents, fellows, providers, and course and conference attendees. The issue begins with a general approach to the evaluation and management of vulvar disorders and then moves on to an article on vulvar pathology that will help clinicians obtain the most useful pathology reads from their biopsies. Also addressed are specific vulvar disorders or presenting findings that are common or challenging. A pelvic floor physical therapy colleague provides information on how this modality can help manage vulvar pain. The issue concludes with an article on hot topics in vulvar disease. In the last several years there has been a growing number of newly trained physicians committed to advancing patient care in the area of vulvar disease, and many of this issue's authors are part of this group. This issue should serve as a useful resource in the office of any provider who evaluates patients with vulvar complaints.

Get Through MRCOG Part 2: SBAs provides 3 exams' worth of questions mapped to the RCOG syllabus in the newly introduced SBA style. With detailed explanations and relevant references to guidelines, this is the definitive resource for those taking the MRCOG Part 2 examination.

The Guest Editors have collaborated on a state-of-the-art presentation of current clinical reviews on Quality in Neonatal Care. Top experts have prepared articles in the following areas: Standardizing Practices: How and why to standardize, using checklists, measuring variation; Health Informatics and Patient Safety; Using Statistical Process Control to Drive Improvement in Neonatal Care; Improving Value in Neonatal Intensive Care; Culture and Context in Quality of Care: Improving Teamwork and Resilience; Has Quality Improvement Improved Neonatal Outcomes; National Quality Measures in Perinatal Care; Perinatal and Obstetric Quality Initiatives; Family Involvement in Quality Improvement; Perinatal Quality Improvement: A Global Perspective; Delivery Room Care / Golden Hour; Respiratory Care and Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia; Reducing Incidence of Necrotizing Enterocolitis; Alarm Safety and Alarm Fatigue; and Patient Safety: Reducing Unplanned Extubations. Readers will come away with the clinical information they need improve quality in the NICU.

Dr. Nicholson's issue is devoted to providing health care to the underserved woman. Leading experts in the area have written reviews to address the leading thinking and management of patient outcomes in the following areas: Racial/ethnic Disparities in Health and Healthcare; Perinatal Quality Indicators and Achieving Birth Equity among Underserved Women; Reducing Disparities in Unintended Pregnancy; Family planning American style: Why it's so hard to control birth in the United States; Breaking the Cycle of Obesity in Women in Underserved Communities; Addressing Healthcare Disparities Among Sexual and Gender Minorities with Community Initiatives; Comparing Options for Patient-Centered Treatment for Uterine Fibroids: Addressing Patient-Centered Fibroid Management in Underserved Women of Childbearing Age; Aiding Underserved Women with Substance Use Disorders before and after Pregnancy; Tthe Role of Qualitative Research in Gynecologic and Reproductive Care; and Using the Electronic Health Record to Conduct Reserch in Population Health. Readers will come away with state-of-the-art information that they can immediately integrate into patient care.

Despite advances in medical technology and patient safety initiatives, maternal morbidity and mortality rates continue to increase. Maternal mortality trends in the US as reported from the CDC from 1989-2009 demonstrate increasing mortality trends from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 17.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2009. To combat this problem, a thorough understanding of the critical medical and surgical issues that are often encountered in pregnancy is essential. Each article addresses a topic relevant to care of the critically ill gravida.

This is the first international study of maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years, different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. Death in Childbirth is a meticulously researched analysis, firmly grounded in the available statistics, of the evolution of those systems between 1800 and 1950 in Britain, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, and on the continent of Europe. Irvine Loudon examines the effectiveness of various forms of maternal care by means of the measurement of maternal mortality - the number of women who died as a result of childbirth. His scholarly and comprehensive study sets out to answer a number of important questions. What was the relative risk of a home or hospital delivery, or a delivery by a midwife as opposed to a doctor? What was the safest country in which to have a baby, and what were the factors which accounted for enormous international differences? Why, against all expectations, did maternal mortality fail to decline significantly until the late 1930s? Death in Childbirth makes an invaluable contribution to medical and social history.

It astounds the western world that such a highly industrialized nation as the Netherlands, with all the resources of modern medicine and technology, has a marked preference for home birth assisted by midwives. Van der Mark examines Dutch attitudes and practices surrounding birth from a sociohistorical point of view, explaining the importance of ideological consensus, the private nature of the Dutch family, the high regard for comfort and well being, and the professional development of midwives as trained and licensed practitioners. This volume will be welcomed by those convinced of the value of low-intervention home birth, but it will also be of interest to practitioners who must rely on technological procedures to manage the birth process. Since the Dutch hold one of the world records of pregnancy outcome statistics, readers will be interested in the Dutch midwifery model described here by various contributors.

Jane Dwinell has written an important book using real-life scenarios to illustrate her unique philosophy of childbirth, one that can only inspire women to take greater control over how and where they give birth. From her vantage point as a birth attendant, Dwinell recounts the moving birth experiences of twenty different women. Thus the reader learns that there are no right or wrong ways to give birth. In fact, the author shows how satisfying it can be for women to exercise their own strength, power and choice in the birth process instead of yielding to unnecessary technological and medical interventions. Birth, she says, is a process of wellness, not illness. Hence, most women don't need medication to help them deal with normal birth pains if they have the proper empowering support during labor.

When women give birth in a comfortable setting of their choice, the medical wrongs against them, committed in hospitals in the name of safety and technology, are prevented. In the face of opposition from an entrenched segment of the medical establishment, Dwinell dares the view that hospital care should not be routine but should be given only with good reason and the women's permission. For pregnant women and their partners, "Birth StorieS" makes a convincing argument that under normal circumstances wach women's intuitive knowledge and individual resources can help her to labor and deliver successfully in her own way. Nurses, midwives, doctors, and birth educators will find it useful to realize that there are many ways to give birth . . . that it is important for the family to be together and make their own choices . . . and that pregnant women can have safe births without excessive medical intervention. This book can also serve as a guide for professionals who want to develop this type of birthing model within their own institution.

The Guest Editors have created a comprehensive issue devoted to the most current and clinically relevant approach to hysterectomies and their alternatives. Top experts have written articles on the following topics: Alternatives to Hysterectomy: Management of Uterine Fibroids; Alternatives to Hysterectomy: Management of Menorrhagia; Hysterectomy for benign conditions of the uterus: Total Abdominal Hysterectomy; Hysterectomy for benign conditions of the uterus: Total Vaginal Hysterectomy; Hysterectomy for benign conditions of the uterus: Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy/Laparoscopically Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy; Hysterectomy for benign conditions of the uterus: Radical Hysterectomy Evidence basis for hysterectomy; Cesarean Hysterectomy; Management of ovaries at the time of benign Hysterectomy; Management of the peri- and postoperative patient undergoing hysterectomy; and Simulation and surgical competency: Current issues.

Pelvic Organ Prolapse, or POP, is a little talked about female health issue that half of all childbearing women will experience late in life. There are more than 300,000 surgeries for POP annually. Due to various causes such as menopause, estrogen loss, genetics, childbirth or heavy lifting, a woman's pelvic organs can shift or drop. This can lead to POP symptoms, including some painful and embarrassing ones, as well as impacting a woman s sexuality. The condition has probably always existed, but has received little press or public acknowledgement so women could learn about the condition and treatment options. This book on POP fills an unfortunate void in women s health awareness. Sherrie Palm writes about her own personal experiences in Pelvic Organ Prolapse: The Silent Epidemic. She had never heard about the condition until she needed surgery for it. Palm explores the subject from all angles, providing the information women need to recognize the symptoms of POP and to become advocates for their own health. Pelvic Organ Prolapse: The Silent Epidemic named the winner for Women's Health in the USA Book News National BEST BOOKS 2009 Awards. http: //www.usabooknews.com/2009bestbooksawards.html More information about Sherrie Palm, and how she is creating awareness for this women's health issue can be found on her website: http: //sherriepalm.com/home About the Author: First-time author Sherrie Palm is a retired business owner. She lives in Wisconsin with her significant other; she has four children and seven grandchildren. Palm plans to conduct educational seminars on POP. She is also actively involved with the local Special Olympics and will donate a portion of the book s proceeds to the group.

Gynecologic malignancies, especially endometrial and ovarian cancers are among the most important and most severely affected by obesity. This volume of Energy Balance and Cancer, written by the world's leading experts in this field, is arranged to provide a transdisciplinary assessment of the pertinent issues, results of relevant research on mechanisms, and control, strategies for dealing with affected patients and improving outcomes and future research needs. The volume comprehensively covers the epidemiology linking obesity to endometrial and ovarian cancer as well as the public awareness of this critical problem. Subsequent chapters explain biologic aspects of linkages between energy balance and gynecologic malignancies. The volume further outlines strategies to disrupt the linkage between obesity and gynecologic malignancies and concludes with a series of chapters focused on management strategies for obese patients with gynecologic malignancies. This volume provides a valuable resource for all physicians, scientists and other transdisciplinary investigators and practitioners interested and involved in energy balance and cancer. It should be a particularly useful guide to optimize outcomes for all practitioners dealing with patients with gynecologic malignancies challenged by energy balance issues. Moreover, it should serve as a useful guide to students and investigators interested in conducting further research on defining and disrupting the important linkage between energy balance and gynecologic malignancies.

Obstetrician Gynecologists are frequently responsible for management of the primary care needs of their patients. A survey performed in 2005 found an estimated 37% of, non-pregnant patients, relies on gynecologists for routine primary care. The same study found that almost a quarter of gynecologists reported they needed additional primary care training across a broad set of medical topics (Acad Med. 2007; 82:602-607). The impetus for training in primary care skills is increasing. In response to language in the Affordable Care Act, the Institute of Medicine developed a report on clinical preventative services necessary for women (Clinical Preventative Services for Women: Closing the Gaps IOM. 2011; also Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology 2011, 23:471-480). The US Department of Health and Human services has adopted these IOM recommendations and, as a result, health plans are required to include these services. While initiatives such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Well-Woman Task Force and recent cross-specialty ACOG educational collaborations have begun to address supplemental educational needs, additional resources covering key primary care topics are necessary. This issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics is an ideal means for accomplishing this important goal.