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 Background and Objectives: Children are one of the most vulnerable groups of society. Any qualitative and quantitative problem in offering health services to them is a main health and social problem. Cooperative health centers for the first time in Iran were established in East Azerbaijan as a proper strategy for solving health problems and limitations of expansion of government health centers. This study was conducted to evaluate their quality of services to children under one year old in comparison with governmental health centers.

 Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was done on 7 cooperative health centers and 14 neighboring government health centers selected by convenience method. Data were collected by filling checklists obtained from observation of services offered to these children by healthcare personnel as well as studying the children's health records. Descriptive (absolute and percent frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (independent samples t-test) statistics were used for analyzing the data.

 Results: The findings showed that the quality of health care for children under one was good (85.71%) in cooperative centers and moderate (78.57%) in government health centers and their statistical difference was significant (P=0.002). In terms of services about growth monitoring of child, nutrition of infant and mothers' education, cooperative health centers had better practice compared to government health centers (P= 0.001, 0.007and 0.023respectively). Regarding the equipment both centers had good facilities (85.71%) and there was no statistically significant difference between them (P= 0.912).

 Conclusion: The results showed that, in most cases, the quality of health care given to children under one was good in cooperative health centers and moderate in government centers. This optimum performance of cooperative centers can encourage health care authorities to plan for the expansion of such centers to compensate for the deficiencies of health services especially in children under one year old.

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  Background & Objective: Depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) is an injectable contraceptive method that is widely used by 68 million women in over 114 countries and was reported Different medical and non medical reasons were reported for discontinuation of DMPA use. Due to little information about continuation rate and reasons for discontinuations of DMPA in this region and because of the different result of the research in other countries this study was designed. to evaluate the use of DMPA�including continuation rate and side effects.

  Methods: In this cross sectional retrospective study 396 DMPA user women referring to health care centers in Ardabil were selected through classified sampling. The data were collected by a questionnaire by interviewing the subjects and data were analyzed by SPSS software using analysis variance (ANOVA) and correlation and T-test.

  Results: The mean age of the study population was 32±7.8 years, 33.8% had primary education and the majority of the users were housewives (%95) and only20 (%5) were employed. 6, 9, 12 and 24 month cumulative continuation rate of DMPA were recorded as %44.5, %26.5, %18.2 and %2.3 respectively. The most common reason for discontinuation among all of groups was amenorrhea. The most common side effects were amenorrhea (%69.7), low back pain (%13.4), and weight gain (%13.4) and headache (%10.4). There was a significant corvelation belween education level and spouse's education level, spouse's job, family income, grariding, number of off spring, type of previous delivery and continuity of DMPA (p<0.05).

  Conclusion: The result of this study could help health authorities and care givers in term of correct counseling and follow up. This factor could result in more satisfaction and improve continuation rate of DMPA.

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Background & Objective: Depression is a debilitating disorder with high prevalence especially in child-bearing women. This study was done to determine relationship between postpartum depression and its various risk factors.
Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study on 600 women referring to health centers in Tabriz. Data were gathered using a questionnaire including 5 parts: demographic characteristics, mother-newborn characteristics, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, Holms stress scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. These data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods in SPSS 14/win software.
Results: In this study 34.7% of mothers were depressed (scores>12). Significant risk factors for postpartum depression were: Marital dissatisfaction, relationship with mother, mother-in law and husband's family, job dissatisfaction, house condition, having an unpleasant
pregnancy experience, unplanned pregnancy, baby care stressors, infant feeding method, nursing problems, mother's self-esteem and stress level.
Conclusion: Concerning high prevalence of postpartum depression in this study and other similar studies and effects of some factors in this disorder, it seems to be necessary to improve the knowledge of mothers and health care staff about this risk factors for reducing effects of this disorder on physical and psychological health of newborns, mothers and
community.

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  Background & Objectives: Delivery is one of the most important events in a woman's life, and pain is an inevitable part of childbirth. The non-controlled pain leads to prolonged labor and multiple injuries to mother and fetus. This research was done to determine the effect of acupressure at the SP6 and LI4 points on the duration and pain of the labor in nulliparous women.

  Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 84 nulliparous women who were attended hospital in Ardabil. The participants were divided into two intervention and control groups using randomized blocking. Pressure has been done on SP6- LI4 points in intervention group. Pain intensity was measured before and after the intervention using visual analog scales and length of active phase and second stage were recorded through vaginal exam in the checklist. Determination of the effect of pressure on the intensity of labor pain and delivery length performed using paired t-test, Student’s t-test and chi-square by SPSS v.16.

  Results: After the intervention the mean level of pain intensity in the intervention group was decreased. Also, there was a significant decrease in mean intensity of pain after each intervention in the intervention group with different dilations (4, 6, 8, and 10 cm) (p<0.001).The mean duration of active phase and second stage in intervention group was significantly less than the control group . (p<0.001, p=0.008).

  Conclusion: Since acupressure at the SP6- LI4 point in different dilatations leads to the reduction in labor pain intensity and delivery duration, therefore, this method can be used to reduce the pain and duration of labor.

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 Background & objectives: Childbirth is the most stressful event for the women both mentally and physically affecting their physiological and psychological indicators during labour. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of non-pharmacological methods of labor pain relief in mothers’ perceived stress conducted in Alavi hospital of Ardabil, 2013.

 Methods: In this double blind randomized controlled trial, 320 mothers were allocated into two groups by stratified block randomization . The intervention group (n=158) received continuous support throughout the labour process, positioning and movement, music, aromatherapy, showering andconsumption of a light diet or water.The control group received only a routine care. The perceived stress scale (PSS) was employed to collect data in three stages at the beginning of the active phase, before the intervention, six hours after birth and then eight weeks postpartum. The two groupswere compared using General Linear Model with controlling the baseline scores.

Results: There were 14 participants loss to follow-up. The mean of perceived stress score in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group at 6 hours [adjusted mean difference: -1.0 (95% confidence interval: -0.01 to -1.9]. However, there was no difference between two groups in terms of perceived stress score at 8 weeks postpartum (p=0.692).

 Conclusion: Non-pharmacological methods of labor pain relief are an effective intervention for reducing perceived stress level in mothers during labor and therefore use of this intervention is recommended.