‘A gripping, honest and moving account of healthcare work in a war zone’ Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm ‘Extraordinary, profoundly moving, all-consuming . . . I haven't stopped thinking about it’ Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks ---------- This is a story of women in crisis, seen through the eyes of a remarkable midwife ‘My own suffering, my own loneliness, was a fair price to pay for the lives we’d saved. And now here I am, training to be a midwife, so that next time I can make it better.’ Anna Kent has delivered babies in war zones, caring for the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. At twenty-six years old, not yet a fully-trained midwife, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year, she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to the UK to work for the NHS, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted. In Frontline Midwife, Kent shares her extraordinary experiences as a nurse, midwife and mother, illuminating the lives of women that are irreparably affected by compromised access to healthcare. This is at once an astonishing story of the realities of frontline humanitarian work, and a powerful reminder of the critical, life-giving work of nurses and doctors at home and around the world. ---------- ‘Brutally powerful . . . Totally absorbing’ Independent ‘The heart-wrenching tale of one midwife’s quest to help others – and make peace with herself’ Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed

The harmful consequences of alcoholism for the unborn child are still largely unknown. This book presents a detailed description of fetal alcohol syndrome as well as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders with respect to their clinical presentation, diagnosis, epidemiology, and pathogenesis. It also includes detailed considerations of underlying psychopathology, prevention, and therapy as well as the social consequences and impacts to patients.

Highlighting the experiences of midwives who provide care to women opting outside of guidelines in the pursuit of physiological birth, Claire Feeley looks at the impact on midwives themselves, and explores how teams and organisations can support or discourage the promotion of women's birth choices. This book investigates the processes, experiences, and sociocultural-political influences upon midwives who support women's alternative birthing choice and argues for a shift in perspective from notions of an individual's professional responsibility to deliver woman-centred care, to a broader, collective responsibility. The book begins by exploring the normal birth debates to demonstrate how hegemonic birth discourse and maternity practices have detrimentally affected physiological birth rates, as well as the wellbeing of women who opt outside of maternity guidelines. It also provides real life examples of how midwives can facilitate a range of birthing decisions within mainstream midwifery services. The second part develops a new model to explore how a midwife's socio-political context can significantly mediate or exacerbate the vulnerability, conflict and stigmatisation that they may experience as a result of promoting alternative birth choices. Part three further explores the implications of the model, looking at how team and organisational culture can be developed to better support women and midwives, making recommendations for a systems approach to improving maternity services. Discussing the invisible nature of midwifery work, what it means to deliver woman-centred care, and the challenges and benefits of doing so, this is a thought-provoking read for all midwives and future midwives. It is also an important contribution to interprofessional concerns around workforce development, sustainability, moral distress and compassion in health and social care.

This fully updated new edition of From Birth to Five Years: Practical Developmental Examination is a step-by-step 'how to' guide to the developmental examination of pre-school children. Based on up-to-date research into current child development philosophies and practices, this text supports the wider group of professionals who are required to assess children's developmental progress as part of their day-to-day working practices. It begins with a practical framework for developmental examination, then progresses through each of the key developmental domains, offering guidance on enquiry and observation, and on how to chart typical and atypical patterns, with red flags for recognising significant delay or disordered development. Advice is also given on how to make sense of the findings and how best to communicate this information to parents. To consolidate and expand on the practical and theoretical information across this book and its companion, Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years, an updated companion website is available at www.routledge.com/cw/sharma, which includes the following additional learning material: An interactive timeline of the key developmental domains; Introductions to theory with links to further reading; Research summaries; Video clips demonstrating practical assessment skills; Downloadable resources including pictures to support examination of verbal and non-verbal development, and tips to facilitate and promote development. Developed alongside the original Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years: Children's Developmental Progress, this unique guide expands on its normative developmental stages by offering practical guidance for health, education and social care professionals, or anyone concerned with monitoring children's developmental progress.

--This text shows students how to organize their work and write gracefully. --Vivid examples show students effective re-writes of example passages. --Classroom and student homework assignments are provided on the book's web site. --Provides examples from both qualitative and quantitative research. --At 150 pages the book is an effective core text for any social science writing course, but brief enough to be assigned in large required courses like social science research methods in sociology and in fields like education, criminology, allied medical health, and other fields where effective research presentation is an important career skill.

Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Care introduces students to the fundamentals of the health care of Indigenous Australians from the perspectives of both the patient and the professional. Designed for both non-Indigenous and Indigenous nurses and midwives who will work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, this book addresses the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and mainstream health services, and prepares students for practice in a variety of contexts. Fully updated to reflect the latest research, this new edition includes new chapters on child health and mental health. Updated online resources provide lecturers with resources to support student learning. Written by leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery academics and practising nurses, Yatdjuligin is an indispensable resource that encourages students to reflect on their values and attitudes towards Indigenous people and health.

Sets out a clear argument for care and caregiving as an aesthetic experience and aesthetic act. Written for all advanced students of nursing and applied theatre, as well as professionals in care, nursing and dramatherapy. The first and only book to advance this concept, disturbing the boundaries of artistic and care practice.

This classic book, first published in 1992 and again in 2003, has inspired three generations of childbearing people, birth activists and researchers, and birth practitioners-midwives, doulas, nurses, and obstetricians-to take a fresh look at the "standard procedures" that are routinely used to "manage" American childbirth. It was the first book to identify these non-evidence-based obstetric interventions as rituals that enact and transmit the core values of the American technocracy, thereby answering the pressing question of why these interventions continue to be performed despite all evidence to the contrary. This third edition brings together Davis-Floyd's insights into the intense ritualization of labor and birth and the technocratic, humanistic, and holistic models of birth with new data collected in recent years.

Relational Care focuses on how people working in and around healthcare can improve the delivery of whole person care. This text integrates Systems Theory and a range of communication tools to support readers in working collaboratively and developing individualized road maps for difficult conversations. Focusing on the relationships between patient, family, and clinician, known as the Relational System, the authors explore how effective communication in healthcare can improve the well-being of all. Beginning with theoretical chapters, the Personal System is described as body, mind, and spirit. Using both Systems encourages readers to see the whole person as they practice. The book incorporates how relational practice improves care in topics such as grief, end-of-life care, stress, and burnout, giving bad news and resolving conflict. Each chapter includes case studies, reflective questions, and prompts for critical thinking to help the reader embed their learning. This practice-changing textbook will be useful to a range of health practitioners, including nurses, Physician Assistants, physicians, and more. It can be used as a supplemental reading for medical interviewing and communications courses.

This new edition provides an up-to-date and thoughtful guide to supporting women in labour, looking at a range of techniques and approaches that promote a safe and positive experience of birth for women and their families. Across the world, support in labour has been shown to reduce obstetric interventions and improve outcomes for women and babies. Written by two highly experienced midwifery authors, this text draws on a wide range of cutting-edge research on this topic, identifying how the evidence can be applied to everyday practice. Narratives from women and practitioners, including midwives, doulas, childbirth educators and students, are used to illustrate a range of situations where the quality of support is central to the quality of the experience and outcome. Supporting Women for Labour and Birth encourages readers to reflect on their experiences and examine the evidence provided by both research and experiences of women and practitioners in order to explore how this could be incorporated into their practice. The only book to deal directly with the practical and emotional issues associated with labour support, this is an ideal text for student midwives and an important reference for practising midwives, doulas and other childbirth practitioners.

Herostories reveals tales untold by most history books: the harrowing journeys and vital triumphs of 19th and 20th century midwifery in the vast landscape of Iceland. Composed from the memoirs and biographies of 100 Icelandic midwives, poet-historian Kristin Svava Tomasdottir's found poems illuminate the dangers and valor of birthwork. Forgoing traditional sagas of androcentric conquest, these poems center the adventures of ljosmaedur, "mothers of light." Tomasdottir leverages epic elements-dashing mountain treks, rivers forded on horseback, unyielding compassion-to challenge how and by whom stories become legend. The follow-up to Tomasdottir/Thors' award-winning, PEN-nominated Stormwarning, Herostories documents the professional achievements of the island's first women to work outside the home, precursors to today's midwives who remain central to contemporary Icelandic healthcare. Beyond archival recognition, the text's formally ambitious poetics render gender-based battles for literacy and education alongside narratives of selfless womanly caretaking, pressurizing the fundamental tensions between feminine self-actualization and the romanticized service of these trailblazing figures.

This second edition of a groundbreaking book is substantially revised to deliver the foundation for an evidence-based model for best practices in midwifery a model critical to raising the United States current standing as the bottom-ranking country for maternity mortality among developed nations. With a focus on updated scientific evidence as the framework for midwifery practice, the book includes 21 completely new chapters that address both continuing and new areas of practice, the impact of institutional and national policies, and the effects of diversity and globalization. Incorporating the midwifery model of care, the book provides strategies for change and guidance for implementing evidence-based best practices. The book examines midwifery efforts to improve the health of women and children in the U.S., for example, Strong Start, US MERA, Centering Pregnancy, a focus on physiologic birth, and successful global endeavors. It encompasses a diverse nationwide authorship that includes leaders in midwifery, academicians, midwives representing diversity, hospital- and community-based practitioners, and policymakers. This coalition of authors from diverse backgrounds facilitates an engaging and robust discussion around best practices. Chapters open with a contemporary review of the literature, a comparison of current (often scientifically unsubstantiated and ineffective) practices, evidence-based recommendations, and best practices for midwifery. Key Features: Focuses on scientific evidence as the framework for midwifery practice Addresses continuing and new, controversial areas of practice with strategies and guidelines for change Includes 20 out of 27 completely new chapters Authored by a diverse group of 44 prominent midwifery leaders Examines practices that are in conflict with scientific evidence

Considering its importance, the history of fetal health and mortality remains a neglected area. Medical historians have tended to focus on maternal mortality and professional conflicts between midwives rather than on the unborn, while among the social scientists demographers and epidemiologists have until recently devoted most of their attention to infants and children.
Death before Birth redresses this imbalance, redirecting attention to the fetus. A study of fetal health from the seventeenth century to the present day, it is the first book to offer an historical perspective on the subject and to combine both medical history and epidemiological and demographic research, using long-term and comparative perspectives, including a strong international comparative element, across both Europe and North America. The book not only provides an account of how fetal health and the risks facing the unborn (miscarriages, abortions, stillbirths etc) have changed, it also offers an interpretation of the causes, one that focuses on the role of obstetrics and the epidemiology of maternal infections.
Along the way, it pays detailed attention to a host of related themes, such as varying cultural practices in the recognition of stillbirths; the age pattern of mortality risk between conception and live birth; comparative trends in late-fetal mortality and their causes; fetal mortality and obstetric care during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries; and the contrasting approaches of the pathologists and "social epidemiologists" to the causes of fetal death. The book concludes with a study of the "fetus as patient," focusing on issues surrounding the legalization of abortion in many Western countries and the public health challenges of persistently high mortality in less developed countries.

Mentoring, Learning and Assessment in Clinical Practice E-Book

This book includes the key findings and recommendations of the Confidential Enquiries summarised in a clear, simple and accessible way, emphasising the implications for clinical practice.A clear, concise summary of the key points of the Confidential Enquiries Links findings with clinical practice, providing examples of clinical scenarios An essential purchase for every health professional involved in maternity care

enables readers to better appreciate the ways in which language functions simultaneously as an instrument to encode and communicate meaning, build and sustain interpersonal relationships, and to express identity. Provides readers with well-grounded tools that they can use to inform their daily work as well as to reflect upon their own communicative practices and – where necessary – to improve them. Features ‘discussion points’ in the form of questions, suggestions for reflection, and small analysis tasks throughout.

This full-colour book provides midwives with highly practical, readily accessible information on the wide range of infections affecting pregnancy and childbirth. It comprehensively outlines the vital role of the midwife in infection, including prevention, identification of high-risk individuals, educational opportunities, signs and symptoms, sample collection, screening and ongoing care.

Max van Manen offers an extensively updated edition of Phenomenology of Practice: Meaning-Giving Methods in Phenomenological Research and Writing to provide an eloquent, accessible, and detailed approach to practicing phenomenology. Phenomenology of practice refers to the meaning of doing phenomenology on experiences that are of significance to those in professional practice such as psychology, health care, education, and in contexts of ordinary living. A special feature of this update is the role of examples, anecdotes, stories, and vignettes, and the singularity of fictionalized empirical fragments in making the unknowable knowable. Accordingly, the various chapters are enriched with many intelligible examples of phenomenological essays and excursions on ordinary and extraordinary topics. These examples show that a phenomenological method can be engaged to explore virtually any lived experience or event. Max van Manen provides penetrating portrayals of depthful insights by brilliant phenomenologists. He identifies and distinguishes a variety of phenomenological orientations that are alive and current today. This book is relevant to scholars, students, and motivated readers interested in the originary meanings and methods of phenomenological human science enquiry. Max van Manen's comprehensive work is of significance to all concerned with the interrelation between being and acting, thoughtfulness and tact, in human sciences research and the phenomenology of everyday life.

This practical book suggests ways in which healthcare students and practitioners can develop their compassion strengths. Discussing what compassion is and means, it includes a new compassion strength model and a series of exercises the reader can use for reflecting on and developing their practice. A hallmark of healthcare practice is compassion, yet there is a lack of understanding as to what compassion is and how it can be developed in practice. The book begins with that challenge of defining compassion, particularly looking at healthcare contexts and making links between self-care and caring for others. It then presents a new, evidence-based holistic model that brings together key elements of compassion for self and other, along with a scale that readers can measure themselves against. Identifying eight strengths "self-care, connection, communication, competency, empathy, interpersonal skills, character and engagement" Durkin provides the theoretical background to each, accompanied with suggestions for practice and reflective activities. It ends with a selection of vignettes that readers can use to try out their strengths. Highlighting the concept of compassion strengths, and compassion as a way of being, this is an essential read for healthcare students and practitioners, whether involved in direct patient care or management.

Exploring how practitioners make use of play's developmental benefits and therapeutic healing properties to aid the child's health care journey, this reflective book expands and enhances the knowledge base underlying the practice of play in hospitals. The work of health play specialists and child life specialists in hospitals in the UK and around the world requires a deep level of clinical knowledge, so that preparing children for procedures can be done with skill and precision. It builds on an understanding of both child development and the impact of traumatic experiences so that children's deepest fears and biggest emotions can be faced without flinching. It also relies on an acceptance that play is the foundation of everything - the child's safest, most natural space - and from this trust, strength and resilience can grow and be nurtured. This new edited text explores the breadth, depth and skills of these trained healthcare practitioners providing play for babies, children, young people and adults, and places the power of play squarely at the centre of most clinical settings. Its starting point of the theory that underpins practice is explored and developed through a combination of reflective essays, case study chapters from the UK and around the world, and the newly emerging use of play in diverse settings. Drawing on the collective work of over 30 play specialists, child life specialists, play service managers, lecturers and researchers, this book is unique in all it offers to paediatric practitioners and settings, in training and in practice. It is an important resource for healthcare play specialists, playworkers, children's nurses, occupational therapists and more.

Taking the recent coronavirus pandemic as a starting point, this book presents and analyzes new research around medical clowning in hospitals, from social media use to the impact on the hospitalized child in later life. This innovative book begins with an overview of the work of medical clowns. It discusses the idea of humor as a mechanism related to the revolution in language and human consciousness, and makes a connection between humor and anxiety, exploring how this can be mobilized to support hospitalized patients. There is extensive examination of medical clowning to strengthen coping skills and promote wellbeing in the time of Covid-19, where loneliness and isolation loomed large and anxieties were high. Subsequent chapters explore the role of medical clowning in wartime and at time of natural disasters, the experiences of children some time after their experience of hospitalization and clowning, and the role of social media and medical clowns in community building. This book is a fascinating contribution to the literature on medical clowning. It is of interest to researchers, practitioners and lecturers in medical clowning, play in healthcare, nursing, medicine, and performance studies.

This well-respected core text provides a comprehensive solid foundation for students of nursing and practitioners who care for and or support people with learning/intellectual disabilities in a range of health and social care settings and scenarios. This book addresses learning/intellectual disability nursing from various perspectives, including historical and contemporary practice, health promotion, interventions for good mental health, people with profound disabilities and complex needs, care across the lifespan, and forensics. This new edition has been comprehensively updated throughout and now includes two entirely new chapters. One covers liaison nursing, and the other explores the future for learning/intellectual disability nursing. The book includes numerous case studies and learning activities to support the reader, as well as remaining clinically relevant. Uniquely this text is linked and bench marked to the Nursing and Midwifery Councils, UK - Future Nurse Standards of Proficiency and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Irelands Competencies for nursing students. This text is essential reading for anyone studying learning/intellectual disabilities at undergraduate and post-graduate levels; it will also be a useful resource for the wider family of nursing, as well as health and social care professionals.

Provides a framework for teaching undergraduate writing courses with an interdisciplinary focus on health literacy Valuable text for writing instructors across composition, technical communication, health humanities, and writing in the health professions programs, and assignable as a text for pedagogy courses or health-focused courses in these areas Chapters feature research and case studies on the implementation of health literacy approaches in a variety of contexts including specific assignments, full programs, and online teaching