Journal scan

Quality as a theme for maternity care research This journal scan reviews a selection of papers relating to quality issues in the maternity services. A Medline search for English language articles relating to quality of care in pregnancy published from January to July 2000 using “pregnancy” and “quality ” as MESH headings produced 17 papers. The journals listed in the Appendix were also hand searched. A total of 42 papers were reviewed; the 11 presented here are a representative selection and were chosen to reflect a range of diVerent aspects of quality initiatives or quality assessment studies in maternity care. The papers have been summa-rised and critically appraised