Recipient of the 2006 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize for the best project in the area of medicine.

The author, a second-generation Greek American, returned to Greece with her young daughter to do fieldwork over the course of a decade. Focusing on Rhodes, an island that blends continuity with the past and rapid social change in often unexpected ways, she interviewed over a hundred women, doctors, and midwives about issues of reproduction.

The result is a detailed portrait of how a longstanding system of "local" gynecological and obstetrical knowledge under the control of women was rapidly displaced in the the period following World War II, and how the technologically-intensive biomedical model that took its place in turn assumed its own distinctive signature.

"Bodies of Knowledge" is a vivid ethnographic study of how a presumably globalizing and homogenizing process like medicalization can be reshaped as women and medical experts alike selectively accept or reject new practices and technologies. Georges found, for example, that women in Rhodes have enthusiastically embraced some new technologies, like fetal imaging during pregnancy, but rejected others, like medical contraception. They are also avid consumers of popular childbirth manuals.

"This book is the recipient of the 2006 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize for the best project in the area of medicine."

"At Work in the Field of Birth" is an ethnographic study of midwifery in Canada in the wake of its historic transition from the margins as a grassroots social movement devoted to low-tech, woman-centered care to a regulated profession within the public health care system. In January 1994, after decades of lobbying by midwives and their supporters, the province of Ontario recognized midwifery as a profession for the first time in more than a century.

Through stories about becoming and being a midwife and stories about receiving midwifery care, this book describes how fundamental tenets of midwifery philosophy and practice--the meaning of tradition, natural birth, and home birth, and the place of medical technology in midwifery--are being reworked by the practical and ideological challenges of midwifery's new place within the formal health care system. MacDonald presents contemporary midwifery as a complex cultural system in which "nature" and "tradition" emerge as dynamic rather than esssentialized social categories of meaning and experience.

STORY EXCERPT:
Martina, another rural midwife, tells me "My great-grandmother was a midwife . . . so I sort of have this idea that there is still a bit of that in my blood. But at the same time-I mean, we don't just get called during labour-it's much more clinical. We are doing blood work that my grandmother wouldn't have done and more lab work and tests. But I want to hold on to some of that. I don't want to become a techno midwife. It's not what I want to do at all. It doesn't mean tat we don't use technology or are not willing to-we certainly do, all the time. But I think that one thing that attracts women to midwives and certainlyattracts women to become midwives is the sense of the neighbour, the friend, having a cup of tea. It is more friendly, you've got time to spend with women."

Quick Look Nursing: Obstetric and Pediatric Pathophysiology is a quick reference book that works well as a supplement to other text books. It covers areas such as Neuro, Immune System, Endocrine, and Respiratory. It's great for Pediatric and OB clinical courses, ADN and BSN students, and nursing staff development departments. Organized by a body system approach, each section begins with a brief review of anatomy and physiology and includes a listing of diagnostic measures pertinent to that system.

"At Work in the Field of Birth" is an ethnographic study of midwifery in Canada in the wake of its historic transition from the margins as a grassroots social movement devoted to low-tech, woman-centered care to a regulated profession within the public health care system. In January 1994, after decades of lobbying by midwives and their supporters, the province of Ontario recognized midwifery as a profession for the first time in more than a century.

Through stories about becoming and being a midwife and stories about receiving midwifery care, this book describes how fundamental tenets of midwifery philosophy and practice--the meaning of tradition, natural birth, and home birth, and the place of medical technology in midwifery--are being reworked by the practical and ideological challenges of midwifery's new place within the formal health care system. MacDonald presents contemporary midwifery as a complex cultural system in which "nature" and "tradition" emerge as dynamic rather than esssentialized social categories of meaning and experience.

STORY EXCERPT:
Martina, another rural midwife, tells me "My great-grandmother was a midwife . . . so I sort of have this idea that there is still a bit of that in my blood. But at the same time-I mean, we don't just get called during labour-it's much more clinical. We are doing blood work that my grandmother wouldn't have done and more lab work and tests. But I want to hold on to some of that. I don't want to become a techno midwife. It's not what I want to do at all. It doesn't mean tat we don't use technology or are not willing to-we certainly do, all the time. But I think that one thing that attracts women to midwives and certainlyattracts women to become midwives is the sense of the neighbour, the friend, having a cup of tea. It is more friendly, you've got time to spend with women."

A great deal of misinformation exists about women's use of substances during pregnancy and lactation. A health care provider's challenge is to know the true risks and bene ts, both to the mother and to her fetus or baby, of taking versus stopping the use of a medication or other substance. Yet the average provider is not well equipped to give the best advice to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and exposed to psychotropics. - "Is it ever safe to drink alcohol when breastfeeding?" - "What are the risks to the baby if the mother uses cannabis while pregnant or breastfeeding?" - "Are the effects of smoking different during pregnancy versus during breastfeeding?" - "Can a woman safely breastfeed her baby when taking codeine?" Exposure to Psychotropic Medications and Other Substances during Pregnancy and Lactation: A Handbook for Health Care Providers is a convenient source of evidence-based information and recommendations on these and many other questions for primary care physicians, psychiatrists, pharmacists, obstetricians, midwives, public health nurses and nurse practitioners. The handbook: - details the properties and effects of many psychotropic medications and other substances, and provides recommendations for how to advise women using these substances - dispels common myths about drug exposure during pregnancy and lactation - discusses key principles for clinical approaches to working with pregnant or breastfeeding women who use psychotropic medications or other substances - covers screening best practices and provides screening tools - explores the critical therapeutic role that all health professionals can play in helping women move toward better health outcomes for themselves and their babies. The production of this handbook has been made possible through a nancial contribution from Health Canada.

The result of a ten-year collaboration between Australian and Samoan researchers and midwives, this book compiles the first-person stories of several generations of Samoan midwives, both those who use traditional techniques for home birth and those who use Western techniques in a hospital. The voices are vivid and varied, often displaying the Samoan gift for storytelling.

The overall picture of changing birthing practices is complex and sometimes tinged with ironies. As the introduction says, "These Samoan nurses and midwives did not immediately attempt to mediate new and old ways of birthing after the colonial leadership of their profession left. They themselves became cultural agents for change as they continued the role of 'colonizing' their own birth tradition and taught the fa'atosaga Samoan for midwife] Western techniques, at the same time trying to provide a professional midwife for all women. Paradoxically they often chose a social midwife for their own births and supported or at least condoned the social midwives close to them. . . . Kaisarina, while working as the leading professional midwife in the country, and working almost totally in hospital practice herself, simultaneously assisted her mother-in-law with her social practice of midwifery. Vipulo's story shows how a professional midwife preferred to have her mother, a social midwife, deliver her at home."

A particular objective of the authors is to encourage a reconception of maternity care in countries where professional services are rare and not available to all women. The book challenges common assumptions, still held in many postcolonial countries, that a simple migration of Western-style, hospital-focused care is necessarily always an achievable or desirable goal. It also demonstrates the considerable progress that one group has made in rethinking and developing a model of maternity care that works within their society and culture. As these midwives' stories suggest, solutions to some of the problems caused by gaps in the kinds of resources that Westerners take for granted can be found in partnerships and cultural wisdom that already exist in Samoa and, by extension, other developing countries.

A Pocket Guide to Clinical Midwifery: The Efficient Midwife, Second Edition is a must-have resource for midwives, women's health nurse practitioners, and all levels of health care providers working in the women's health field. Organized alphabetically for easy reference, it features important concepts, diagnostic tools, algorithms, and management options, including conventional, lifestyle, and complementary therapies, all in one place. Completely updated and revised, the new edition offers current evidence-based references, the latest medication recommendations, and midwifery practice pearls. Also provided are recent changes to practice, such as FHR monitoring, hypertensive guidelines, contraception updates, prenatal care, LGBTQIA+ support, precepting, sexual health, and evidence-based practice.

The present edition is an English translation of the book published in Russian by the Medical Literature State Publishing House in 1954. The book contains the lectures delivered by its authors at the courses for obstetricians and gynaecologists conducted at the Kharkov Institute of Advanced Medical Training.

Health care professionals need to make rapid decisions under pressure to prevent and manage adverse outcomes during childbirth. Using an enquiry-based learning approach, this book offers a straightforward but comprehensive guide to emergency care, with scenarios throughout and expert commentary from a Supervisor of Midwives. It all addresses all major emergency situations as well as legal and clinical governance issues. It is essential reading for all midwives, paramedics and allied health professionals involved in the provision of obstetric care away from the acute setting.

So, you think you want to be a lactation consultant, open a private practice, and earn a good living by helping mother and babies breastfeed? This is the book for you The Lactation Consultant in Private Practice: The ABCs of Getting Started is a user-friendly orientation and guide to the lactation consultant profession for those interested in running a full-time, profitable, and long-term lactation consultant practice. Author Linda J. Smith presents her original "ABC" sequential format of essential skills necessary to start a successful practice in three balanced sections: Attitude, Business Skills, and Clinical Skills. Each section begins with an overview, contains a "pitfalls and problems" chapter and two examples of successful private practices from around the world.

To ensure the unfolding and development of a student nurse on a personal as well as a student nurse on a personal as well as a professional level, necessitates the acquisition of firstly, a solid theoretical foundation and, secondly, the mastering of certain psychomotor skills. The new manual of midwifery procedures provides the necessary information regarding important psychomotor skills. The procedures were set out according to principles and not specifies. Through the application of the basic principles assimilated in this manual, within the scope of a practice and the existing ethical codes, each nurse will ensure the promotion of safe nursing care for the patients.

Case Studies in Breastfeeding: Problem Solving Skills and Strategies combines logic, wisdom, and theory in order to convey a deeper understanding of how to act in accordance with the highest needs of the breastfeeding mother and baby. In this book, authors Karin Cadwell, PhD, RN, IBCLC and Cindy Turner-Maffei, MA, IBCLC develop a consultative framework and present illustrative case studies designed to increase the practitioner's knowledge about managing complex breastfeeding cases. It includes tables and charts as well as color prints.

Revised and updated, this new 6th edition is the all-in-one source for practical, reliable information on nursing care during the childbearing years. Designed to meet the needs of today's students, it addresses the fundamentals of maternity nursing with a clear, more readable writing style and a concise, more focused content presentation. Integrating the importance of understanding family, culture, and health promotion into the continuum of care, it also includes a strategic integration of community-based care to emphasize that care can take place wherever the woman may be.

"

Supportive Care and Midwifery" explores the increasingly powerful movement to utilize support during childbearing. Support is examined at various levels including personal interaction, clinical practice and management, and policy making. The book critically analyses the current situation from an international perspective and considers support by and for those involved in maternity care.

The book reflects Rosemary Mander's active research orientation as well as academic background. The research base is crucial throughout, and is most evident in the author's account of her own study. The origins, uses and misuses of research evidence emerge as fundamental; the political implications of these phenomena also become apparent as the argument develops. The author concludes by looking to the future and anticipating the development of support for the childbearing woman.

This text can be used to address discrete and specific support-related issues, as well as being read in its entirety to follow the unfolding of a powerful and persuasive argument.

Key features:
Emphasises evidence-based practice
Critically analyses the phenomena
Focuses on the woman's experience
Accessible and reader-friendly"

Supportive Care and Midwifery" is essential reading for midwives in training and for post-registration students on undergraduate programmes. It is also a valuable text for post-graduate students, practicing midwives, service providers and health visitors.

Despite our country's affluence and high-tech advances in neonatal intensive care, in 1994 the U.S. ranked twenty-first in infant mortality rates among developed countries with populations over 2.5 million. Women with low-risk pregnancies are frequently failed by the traditional obstetrical system, either because they cannot afford proper prenatal care—and therefore often give birth to babies who need to be assisted by expensive neonatal intensive care—or because the system fosters an attitude of dependency on doctors, surgery and drugs, rather than a sense of empowerment during the birth process. This enlightening book demonstrates with conviction that childbirth can and should be a process of empowerment, and that midwifery should be the standard of care for women with low-risk pregnancies. Diary of a Midwife, written by a certified nurse-midwife and the founder of the first nurse-midwifery graduate education program in Virginia, is based on the author's 13 years delivering babies in rural Virginia. Through the author's experiences as a midwife, mother of three, and veteran of training as a labor and delivery nurse in a busy hospital's maternity ward, the midwife care alternative is revealed to be the best way for healthy women to be collaborators in their own care. Midwives encourage women to develop their inner power for the birth process by providing teaching, support, and comfort. Adequate prenatal care reduces the number of premature and low-birth weight babies, and costly, traumatic medical interventions such as Cesarean and forceps deliveries, episiotomies and routine anesthesia are often avoided. Author Juliana van Olphen-Fehr movingly shows that midwifery is an art and that it can do much to create mothers who are able to greet their newborns with dignified, loving, and strong arms. _

Highly detailed and clearly written, this book is the first full-length study of the complex system of practices, beliefs and taboos which surrounded conception and childbirth in early modern Europe.
In a rich and scholarly study, Jacques Gelis reconstructs the activities and attitudes of the midwives and mothers, and the sufferings they had to endure. He continues with an examination of the role of the Church, the herbalist and the mineral world (touchstones and talisman) in the explanation of the mysteries of procreation.

Making Midwives Legal explores what happens when midwifery and medicine are brought together by legal regulation. Combining historical data on the regulation of midwifery in Europe and the United States with a field study of the regulation of midwifery in Texas, Arizona, and California, Raymond G. DeVries uncovers the subtle ways legislation alters the profession - demonstrating both beneficial and detrimental consequences. This new edition includes an updated preface that situates the themes of the book in the current debate over health care and midwifery, an epilogue that examines the major issues in the 1990s and comments on developments that have taken place over the past decade, and an updated bibliography. By encouraging thoughtful policy changes in maternity care, Making Midwives Legal contributes to our understanding of the workings of health care systems, medical professions, and the relation between the law and medicine.

This extraordinary book reveals the experiences of twenty different wo men diagnosed with breast cancer. With extreme courage, insight, and c ompassion, the women uncover intimate perspectives of illness and reco very. In their own words, the women share how they have dealt with tre atment, coped with emotional and physical stress, faced the threat of recurring cancer, strengthened ties with family and friends, confronte d mortality, and developed new outlooks and philosophies. Breast Cance r is a remarkable book ideal for health professionals, educators, stud ents, patients, and their families, anyone interested in developing ne w insights into disease and living.

As women increasingly seek more humanistic birthing methods than the hospital-based delivery, certified midwife Susanna Napierala suggests that water birth offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together. Warm water, explains the author, reduces the hours and stress of labor, offers bodily support and relaxes blood flow, helping to ease the baby's journey. The baby makes its transition to breathing air in a familiar, gentle medium. Avoiding the didactics of ideology, Napierala infuses her eloquent text with answers to commonly-asked questions: How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? For whom is water birth a viable choice? How does a couple prepare for it? Water Birth guides the reader through the details of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, noting danger signals that must be heeded. Here is a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and instruction for those who make this choice. Giving birth is one of life's most enriching, yet emotionally and physiologically stressful experiences. Faced with the dehumanizing mandates of the medical establishment, women increasingly seek alternatives to hospital birth. In her carefully presented book, Susanna Napierala, midwife to more than 600 births over 18 years, suggests that giving birth in water offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together. Recognizing that this birthing approach is not yet widely practiced in the United States, Napierala readily acknowledges the commonly-asked questions: How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? What specifically makes water birth a viable choice, and for whom? How do a couple and their chosen midwife prepare for water birth? Avoiding ideological didactics, the author cautions that, regardless of a couple's expectations of the birth experience, every pregnancy's priority should be a healthy mother and baby. As she details aspects of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, Napierala counsels vigilance, noting possible difficulties and danger signals that must be heeded. For midwives, their assistants, pregnant women and their families considering birth options, Water Birth offers a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and guidance for those who make this choice.

Never mind what you've been through. The baby's here, he's healthy. That's the most important thing, isn't it? Few women planning a pregnancy or anticipating childbirth would dispute that the safe birth of a healthy child is their primary concern. Even when this happy outcome is achieved, however, the process of childbirth itself can wreak havoc on a woman's emotional and physiological well-being--especially when unforeseen medical complications change the expected course of labor and delivery. Rebounding From Childbirth--the first book to focus exclusively on the mother's feelings about a difficult birth--shows how traumatic childbirth forces a woman to suddenly relinquish cherished hopes for her experience of actually becoming a mother. Amid the joys of a healthy baby, the mother's feelings of anger, grief, failure and disappointment often get scant attention from family, friends and medical personnel. Drawing from her own life as a professional counselor and mother of three, Lynn Madsen argues that a woman should not underestimate her own need to recover emotionally and physiologically from a violent birth experience. Without true healing, Madsen's analysis reveals, a new mother's suppressed sense of loss and pain can affect her relationships with her baby and husband, her body image, her feelings about going back to work, even her hopes for future pregnancies and births. Through her own story and those of other women, Madsen offers comfort, hope, and an intensely personal perspective to new mothers who feel alone with a range of negative feelings about childbirth. Taking a dual stance as counselor and mother, she structures self-analytical questions and outlines techniques such as journal and letter writing to help the reader begin the healing journey. For obstetricians, nurses, midwives, new mothers and mothers-to-be, Rebounding From Childbirth provides moving insight and counsel on a difficult subject.

Global and national confidential inquiry reports show that 60 to 80% of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality are due to avoidable errors. This comprehensive and illustrated second edition offers a practical guide to the management of obstetric, medical, surgical, anaesthetic and newborn emergencies in addition to organisational and training issues. The book is divided conveniently into nine sections and updated throughout in line with modern research and practice. Several new chapters cover setting up skills and drills training in maternity services to reduce avoidable harm, managing obstetric emergencies during 'home births' and in low-risk midwifery units, and minimizing maternal and fetal morbidity in failed operative vaginal delivery. Each chapter includes a practical algorithm for quick reference, the scientific basis for proposed actions, a case-based practical exercise and useful learning tools such as 'Key Pearls' and 'Key Pitfalls'. An invaluable resource for obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives, medical students, anesthesiologists and the wider perinatal team.

This book traces the illness of the late Elizabeth Gee (former Interim Executive Director of the Center for Human Caring) from the original diagnosis of breast cancer to her battle with terminal illness. Absorb ing and beautifully written, the book captures the anguish of confront ing a mortal illness and the courage of one woman who made this confro ntation an affirmation of life.

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 power of 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 yeild to the strength within their own bodies, and if they have the proper 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 each women's intuitive knowledge and individual resources can help her to labor and give birth 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 canhave safe births without excessive medical intervention. Finally, Birth Stories also serves as a unique guide for those professionals who are seeking a woman-centered birth model for their institutions.

For counselor Nancy Wainer Cohen, this book is the sibling to "Silent Knife: Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth after Cesarean "(Bergin & Garvey, 1983) her critically-acclaimed expose on America's growing reliance on cesarean sections. "Open Season "provides fresh insights and new information on the subject, offering guidance to childbearing couples, educators, health professionals, and scholars who value the natural path of childbirth.

Readers will find this book timely, informative, shocking, irreverent, and extremely readable. Cohen's intimate writing style presents a compendium of knowledge on childbirth in the fashion of a personal letter. Her aim is to lower America's alarming reliance on cesarean section, which is currently at 25 percent of all births, and to return the responsibility for childbirth to women by encouraging them to choose the kind of birthing experience they wish to have. In addition to cesarean section, Cohen discusses many other generally unnecessary interventions performed on women during pregnancy and childbirth--such as fetal monitoring and routinized hospital procedures.