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The crucial role played by cervical cancer screening (CCS) in women’s health, originated a qualitative, cross-sectional, exploratory and descriptive study aiming to understand what cervical cancer screening and nursing interventions carried out during medical appointments really mean to women. The sample consisted of female users of a healthcare unit, among which 20 women who had missed their cervical cancer screening sessions were contacted and selected. The semi-structured interview was the instrument selected to collect data. Data analysis was carried out using content analysis techniques, with semantic categorization, and an inductive approach using version 11 of the NVivo program. Data analysis gave rise to a set of arguments that shed some light on why women choose not to attend CCS sessions and on which nursing interventions conducted in those CCS sessions are really meaningful to them.

Maternal and obstetric health specialist nurses focus their attention on the human responses to life transitions, particularly in physiological situations. The appearance of associations, in Portugal, for physiological birth defence and for water births defence was the reason for this research. This is a qualitative, phenomenological study from the Max Van Manen perspective with the aim to understand the experience of mothers who had one or more water births in Portugal. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who had at least one experience of childbirth in the water. The data were collected between July 2017 and February 2018. From the qualitative analysis of the data emerged seven categories. Considering the dimension of this study only two of these categories are possible to be presented in this article, namely: the benefits of water; and the woman’s satisfaction manifestations with the experience of physiological labour in water.

Post-partum is expected to be a time of joy. However, this is not always the case, as it can be a time marked by moments of sadness, fatigue and discouragement. This study intended to obtain the best scientific evidence to understand whether breastfeeding has a preventive effect on postpartum depression. For this, an integrative review of the literature was made on the relationship between breastfeeding and postpartum depression through the databases: EBSCO host, LILACS, PubMed, SciELO, institutional repositories and Google Scholar. Most studies identify breastfeeding as being preventive of postpartum depression, highlighting its importance for the puerperium’s mental health and consequently reducing the chances of developing postpartum depression. An informed and supported woman about breastfeeding will be able to feel confident in her new role. A constant investment by the health team, initiated during the couple’s planning process for pregnancy, is essential, and is maintained throughout pregnancy, delivery and postpartum.

Cultural practices linked to maternity require profound knowledge and respect for each woman and for what they consider as making sense in their experience of becoming a mother. However, the same senses are not always shared by the participants, justifying the need for intercultural mediation. The aim of this study was to understand the intercultural mediation in nursing care in obstetrics. It is a qualitative study, using the semi-structured interview to 15 obstetric nurses and analysis of the content supported by NVivo 10. Emerging categories were: meaning attributed to the intercultural mediation, principles of intercultural mediation; functions of informal intercultural mediator nurses, and reasons for intercultural mediation in obstetrics. We conclude that although in their clinical practice in obstetrics, nurses sometimes exercise informal intercultural mediator functions; they need training in intercultural mediation, which is evident from the opinions of the participants.