Raising awareness of the importance of fetal movements (FMs) and advising women on the appropriate action to take if they experience reduced FMs, is important for minimising or avoiding adverse perinatal outcomes. To gain insight and understanding of women’s perspectives of assessing FMs in pregnancy, we conducted a qualitative evidence synthesis. A qualitative evidence synthesis...
Research investigating exercise interventions in oesophagogastric cancer survivors is sparse, and the outcomes are varied. The aim of this systematic review is to identify the domains and outcomes reported in exercise interventions in oesophagogastric cancer survivors to be included in a Delphi study, with a view to informing the development of a core outcome set (COS). EMBASE...
guidelines. (DOCX) Author Contributions Conceptualization: Valerie Smith, Cecily Begley. Formal analysis: Valerie Smith. Funding acquisition: Valerie Smith, Cecily Begley. Methodology: Valerie Smith ... , Louise Gallagher, Margaret Carroll. Validation: Valerie Smith, Louise Gallagher, Margaret Carroll, Kathleen Hannon. Writing – original draft: Valerie Smith. Writing – review & editing: Louise Gallagher
Michelle Evensen, and Stine Lilje. Author Contributions Conceptualization: Valerie Smith, Francesca Wuytack. Data curation: Alexandria Remus, Annelie Gutke, Juan Jose Saldaña Mena, Lena Nilsson Wikmar ... , Birgitta O¨ berg, Christina Olsson, Hilde Stendal Robinson, Britt Stuge, Francesca Wuytack. Formal analysis: Alexandria Remus. 11 / 13 Funding acquisition: Valerie Smith, Annelie Gutke, Juan Jose Saldaña
Controversy exists regarding ankyloglossia (tongue-tie) and its clinical impact on breastfeeding, including the benefits, or otherwise, of tongue-tie release (frenotomy). As exclusive breastfeeding rates in Ireland are already considerably low (46% on discharge home from the maternity unit following birth in 2014), it is imperative to protect and support breastfeeding, including...
Valerie Smith is a Section Editor for BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth Journal. All remaining authors declare that they have no competing interests. Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms
Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, IrelandColette McCann AuthorsSearch for Anna Dencker in:PubMed • Google Scholar Search for Valerie Smith in:PubMed • Google Scholar Search for Colette McCann
: Elizabeth Gargon, Sarah L. Gorst, Nicola L. Harman, Valerie Smith, Karen Matvienko-Sikar. Methodology: Elizabeth Gargon, Paula R. Williamson. Supervision: Elizabeth Gargon. Writing – original draft ... : Elizabeth Gargon, Sarah L. Gorst. Writing – review & editing: Elizabeth Gargon, Sarah L. Gorst, Nicola L. Harman, Valerie Smith, Karen Matvienko-Sikar, Paula R. Williamson. 14 / 15 Williamson PR , Altman
. Consent for publication Not applicable. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Author Valerie Smith is a Section Editor for BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
Background Women with pregnancy complicated by pregestational diabetes experience increased rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Prepregnancy care is the targeted support and additional care offered to those women who are planning pregnancy and is associated with improved outcomes. However, there is significant heterogeneity in the outcomes measured and reported in studies...
Background The COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative promotes the development and application of core outcome sets (COS), including relevant studies in an online database. In order to keep the database current, an annual search of the literature is undertaken. This study aimed to update a previous systematic review, in order to identify any further...
Background Recruitment rates in multi-centre randomised trials often fall below target recruitment rates, causing problems for study outcomes. The Studies Within A Trial (SWAT) Programme, established by the All-Ireland Hub for Trials Methodology Research in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Network of Hubs in the United Kingdom and others, is developing methods for...
, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, BT12 6BA, UKMike ClarkeSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway, IrelandValerie Smith & Declan Devane AuthorsSearch for Valerie Smith in:PubMed ... Correspondence to Valerie Smith. Additional information Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions VS participated in the design of the study
Background A core outcome set (COS) can address problems of outcome heterogeneity and outcome reporting bias in trials and systematic reviews, including Cochrane reviews, helping to reduce waste. One of the aims of the international Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative is to link the development and use of COS with the outcomes specified and reported...
Background Current recommendations do not support the use of continuous electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) for low risk women during labour, yet EFM remains widespread in clinical practice. Consideration of the views, perspectives and experiences of individuals directly concerned with EFM application may be beneficial for identifying barriers to and facilitators for implementing...
Complex interventions encompassing several interconnecting and interacting components can be challenging to evaluate. Examining the underlying trial processes while an intervention is being tested can assist in explaining why an intervention was effective (or not). This paper describes a process evaluation of a pan-European cluster randomised controlled trial, OptiBIRTH...
in PubMed Google Scholar Valerie Smith View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Deirdre Daly View author publications You can also search for this
Background Hundreds of studies of maternity care interventions have been published, too many for most people involved in providing maternity care to identify and consider when making decisions. It became apparent that systematic reviews of individual studies were required to appraise, summarise and bring together existing studies in a single place. However, decision makers are...
Background The proportion of pregnant women who have a caesarean section shows a wide variation across Europe, and concern exists that these proportions are increasing. Much of the increase in caesarean sections in recent years is due to a cascade effect in which a woman who has had one caesarean section is much more likely to have one again if she has another baby. In some...