'After the historic student revolt in France a period of audacious creativity resulted. The watchword was: "It is forbidden to forbid". We took advantage of this transient cultural folly to do what would have been impossible ten years before or ten years after, introducing in the maternity unit of a state hospital an inflatable outdoor pool as a way to replace drugs during birth.' - from the Introduction In this groundbreaking book, Dr Odent takes as his starting point the world-famous work on childbirth at Pithiviers, where he first noticed the strong attraction to water that many women have during labour. As well as discovering the practical advantages of water during the birthing process, he began to consider the meaning and importance of water as a symbol. Water, Birth and Sexuality examines the living power of water and its erotic connotations. Odent evaluates what water meant in different cultures throughout history, through myths and legends, and what it means for us today: from an advertiser's tool to a metaphor for aspects of the psyche. He also studies humanity's special relationship to dolphins, and the related 'aquatic ape' theory.A practical section on the use of water during birth and in various therapies, particularly sex therapy, is included. This edition of this classic work features a new Introduction.

Maria Anderson trained as an NHS nurse and went on to become a midwife, a job she has adored for over twenty years. After fainting whilst attending her first three births, Maria went from nervous trainee to assured midwife and in her brilliant memoir she recounts the highs and lows of life inside the maternity unit. From frantic fathers and breaking her hand during a traumatic home birth, to witnessing the delivery of quads and the ultimate devastation of assisting the delivery of a stillborn baby, Maria has had an extraordinary career. Tales of a Midwife is a funny, poignant and heart-warming account of a devoted midwife.

The new edition of this ground-breaking text is an essential resource for the management of drugs during pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period. Fully updated in line with current midwifery practice, it includes new chapters on Disorders of the Immune System and Recreational Drugs, and expanded coverage of pain relief.

2021 Honorable Mention for the Association for Feminist Anthropology's Rosaldo Book Prize Maternal health outcomes are a key focus of global health initiatives. In Delivering Health, author Lydia Z. Dixon uncovers the ways such outcomes have been shaped by broader historical, political, and social factors in Mexico, through the perspectives of those who are at the front lines fighting for change: midwives. Midwives have long been marginalized in Mexico as remnants of the country's precolonial past, yet Dixon shows how they are now strategically positioning themselves as agents of modernity and development. Midwifery education programs have popped up across Mexico, each with their own critique of the health care system and vision for how midwifery can help. Delivering Health ethnographically examines three such schools with very different educational approaches and professional goals. From San Miguel de Allende to Oaxaca to MichoacAn and points between, Dixon takes us into the classrooms, clinics, and conferences where questions of what it means to provide good reproductive health care are being taught, challenged, and implemented. Through interviews, observational data, and even student artwork, we are shown how underlying inequality manifests in poor care for many Mexican women. The midwives in this book argue that they can improve care while also addressing this inequality. Ultimately, Delivering Health asks us to consider the possibility that marginalized actors like midwives may hold the solution to widespread concerns in health.

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.

Supporting a Physiologic Approach to Pregnancy and Birth: A Practical Guide provides an overview of current evidence and a range of practical suggestions to promote physiologic birth within the United States healthcare system. Presenting the latest evidence available on practical approaches and minimal interventions, this book looks into clinic exam rooms and hospital labor units to investigate the possibilities for improving the pregnancy and labor experience. Contributors discuss recent research and other published information and present a range of ideas, tools, and solutions for maternity care clinicians, including midwives, nurses, physicians, and other members of the perinatal team. An invaluable resource, Supporting a Physiologic Approach to Pregnancy and Birth is a must-have practical guide for those involved in all aspects of pregnancy and birth.

Enjoy hypnobirthing techniques at every stage of your pregnancy, creating a safe space for you and your baby to return to time and again. Find out how to use deep relaxation, meditation, visualization, and breathwork exercises designed to integrate body and mind throughout your pregnancy and birth. Anthonissa Moger, aka The Hypnobirthing Midwife, takes a holistic approach, opening out the benefits to embrace aromatherapy, yoga, partner work, mindset exercises, and more. Using hypnobirthing techniques as a path to a calm, connected pregnancy, you'll be fully prepared to respond intuitively to birthing your baby, feeling centred and in control.

Good teamwork ensures the close collaboration and coordination between professional groups and across disciplinary boundaries. This is particularly important in healthcare centres and clinics admitting complicated patient cases, but contrary to what many healthcare organisations seem to believe, effective teamwork does not happen automatically. It needs to be successfully trained and practiced. Teamwork in Medical Rehabilitation provides a guide to efficient teamwork in professional healthcare. Showcasing the practice of medical rehabilitation in Sweden, the book describes how to create, develop, nourish and organise a team. Medical rehabilitation in Sweden is a discipline filled by not only doctors and nurses, but also physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists and dieticians. Using these multi-professional teams as clinical case studies, the book contains many practical examples from different rehabilitation care areas. This book will prove to be invaluable to healthcare professionals and students as effective collaboration is essential to good clinical outcomes. Managers will also find this a worthy read thanks to its understanding of how working conditions affect good teamwork.

English summary: Midwife-led concepts of care in hospitals exist worldwide in different organizational forms. The thesis on hand examines the new model of midwife-led care in Germany. The purpose of the prospective study was to determine the outcomes of low-risk women and their children in the midwife-led unit compared to the obstetrician-managed delivery unit. The main outcome variables were maternal and neonatal morbidity, mode of delivery, medical interventions, complementary and alternative therapies, postnatal physical symptoms, postnatal wellbeing and breastfeeding. Women's views on the care they experienced during labour and birth relating to choice, control, continuity of care and relationship to caregivers as well as birth experience are assessed. Midwife-led care offers real benefits to low-risk women and their children during labour and birth and an increased likelihood of a physiological birth. Positive effects on the health and wellbeing of women and children are evident. German text. German description: Hebammengeleitete klinische Versorgungskonzepte existieren international in verschiedenen Formen. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht das - in Deutschland neue - Versorgungskonzept Hebammenkreisssaal anhand einer prospektiv kontrollierten Studie. Ziel ist, fur Deutschland Aufschluss uber die Auswirkungen des Versorgungskonzeptes Hebammenkreisssaal im Vergleich zum ublichen, arztlich geleiteten Kreisssaalmodell zu erhalten. Gesunde Schwangere werden im klinischen Setting wahrend der Schwangerschaft und Geburt ausschliesslich von Hebammen betreut. Primare Endpunkte der Studie sind das maternale und kindliche Outcome, medizinische und hebammengeburtshilfliche Interventionen, das Stillverhalten sowie das physische und das psychische mutterliche Wohlbefinden nach der Geburt. Ferner wird die Einstellung der Frauen zu relevanten Aspekten der erfahrenen Betreuung wahrend der Geburt explorativ untersucht. Hebammen, die im klinischen Setting gesunde Schwangere und Gebarende eigenverantwortlich betreuen, fordern demnach die Moglichkeiten einer physiologischen Geburt. Ihre Betreuung besitzt positive Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden von Mutter und Kind.

Humanity, argues Michel Odent, stands at a crossroads in the history of childbirth - and the direction we choose to take will have critical consequences. Until recently a woman could not have had a baby without releasing a complex cocktail of 'love hormones'. In many societies today, most women give birth without relying on the release of such a flow of hormones. Some give birth via caesarean section, while others use drugs that not only block the release of these natural substances, but do not have their beneficial behavioural effects. 'This unprecedented situation must be considered in terms of civilization', says Odent, and gives us urgent new reasons to rediscover the basic needs of women in labour. At a time when pleas for the 'humanization' of childbirth are fashionable, the author suggests, rather, that we should first accept our 'mammalian' condition and give priority to the woman's need for privacy and to feel secure. The activity of the intellect, the use of language, and many cultural beliefs and rituals - which are all special to humans - are handicaps in the period surrounding birth. Says Odent: 'To give birth to her baby, the mother needs privacy. She needs to feel unobserved. The newborn baby needs the skin of the mother, the smell of the mother, her breast. These are all needs that we hold in common with the other mammals, but which humans have learned to neglect, to ignore or even deny.' Expectant parents, midwives, doulas, childbirth educators, those involved in public health, and all those interested in the future of humanity, will find this a provocative and visionary book.

Approximately one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage but for each woman the experience is unique. This sympathetic and helpful book explores the many different ways in which women physically experience miscarriage and emotionally react to it. Drawing on the experiences of over 350 women, it will help every woman who has miscarried make sense of her loss and find her own way of coping with the confusion that frequently follows.
Many aspects of miscarriage are covered including difficult issues that are often avoided:
* the nature of the loss: tissue, embryo, foetus or baby?
* guilt about an earlier abortion
* explaining miscarriage to other children
* the effect of miscarriage on a relationship
* returning to work after miscarriage
* coping with repeated miscarriages.
Miscarriage also provides a unique set of guidelines to good practice for professionals, based on what women say they find helpful. Professionals who want to evaluate their own practice or develop the service they offer will find this an invaluable book.

This groundbreaking book takes us around the world in search of birth models that work in order to improve the standard of care for mothers and families everywhere. The contributors describe examples of maternity services from both developing countries and wealthy industrialized societies that apply the latest scientific evidence to support and facilitate normal physiological birth; deal appropriately with complications; and, generate excellent birth outcomes - including psychological satisfaction for the mother. The book concludes with a description of the ideology that underlies all these working models - known internationally as the midwifery model of care.

Better Births: The Midwife 'with Woman' provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the fundamental concepts at the heart of all midwifery practice. Written for student midwives and qualified practitioners alike, this evidence-based textbook examines what it means to be 'with woman' from a range of perspectives, in a variety of contexts, and in diverse areas of practice. Based on Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis--the theoretical approach to developing knowledge in nursing science--this authoritative resource systematically examines and analyses the most recent literature and evidence, presenting findings of high relevance to midwives and childbearing women with contributions from international experts. Introduces the concept of being 'with woman' and explains the evolutionary concept analysis approach Provides insights on the relationship between woman and midwife and on fulfilling the 'with woman' concept Reviews contemporary literature to identify new knowledge and generate questions about the concept Includes discussion of global and historical perspectives, high risk midwifery, mental health issues, supporting the bereaved woman, delivering nurturing care to the older childbearing woman, midwifery education, public health, the future of midwifery, and more Better Births is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students in midwifery programmes, scholars and educators in the field, sociologists and researchers in related disciplines, and general readers interested in women's position in society, birth and motherhood, and feminism.

The use of warm water immersion throughout the birthing process is renowned for its physical and psychological benefits, yet waterbirth is still vastly underrepresented as a birthing method across the globe. Now going into its second edition, Dianne Garland's popular and authoritative text guides the reader through the clinical, practical and organisational considerations for delivery in water. Drawing on the author's own extensive experience, the book explores: - The history and evolution of hydrotherapeutic theory. - The specific skills and specialist care required for attending births in this setting. - Key research and debates surrounding the many aspects of waterbirth. - Practical guidance on engaging with parents when promoting waterbirth as an option. From an internationally renowned and respected midwife, this new edition retains the personal and engaging style that made the first edition so popular. The book is enhanced with photos taken from the author's own travels around the world, and features a wealth of interactive material - including an expansion of the Birth Story feature, whereby first-hand accounts of waterbirth from both mothers and practitioners worldwide provide an often moving conclusion to each chapter. With a strong focus on developing practitioners' knowledge and skills in this area, enabling them to confidently offer waterbirth as a safe and viable option, this classic text is an invaluable one-stop resource for anyone with academic, professional or personal interests in waterbirth.

Few experiences can compare to the trauma and pain of losing a baby; and the wall of silence that often surrounds that loss can make grieving even harder. Loving You From Here explores the traumatic impact of losing a baby through stillbirth and neonatal death. It features the moving stories of multiple families; some affected recently, some decades ago, but still living with the loss. This book is a practical guide for grieving parents in the grips of tragedy, and those around them who want to be able to offer support. From managing those initial feelings of shock, grief, guilt and anger, this book will also show families how it is possible to grow around that grief and eventually form an enduring bond with their baby. This profound and insightful book will help everyone impacted by the loss of a baby - before, during or after birth - including those who have suffered an early or a late miscarriage and those who have had an ectopic pregnancy, and provides sensitive and reassuring advice on all aspects of loss and bereavement, as well as practical advice on how to find a new normal. This groundbreaking book breaks through the suffocating silence that surrounds the death of a baby and gives a voice to all those affected by baby loss.

No sleep for twenty hours. No food for ten. And a ward full of soon-to-be mothers… Welcome to the life of a midwife.

Life on the NHS front line, working within a system at breaking point, is more extreme than you could ever imagine. From the bloody to the beautiful, from moments of utter vulnerability to remarkable displays of strength, from camaraderie to raw desperation, from heart-wrenching grief to the pure, perfect joy of a new-born baby, midwife Leah Hazard has seen it all.

Through her eyes, we meet Eleanor, whose wife is a walking miracle of modern medicine, their baby a feat of reproductive science; Crystal, pregnant at just fifteen, the precarious, flickering life within her threatening to come far too soon; Star, birthing in a room heady with essential oils and love until an enemy intrudes and Pei Hsuan, who has carried her tale of exploitation and endurance thousands of miles to somehow find herself at the open door of Leah’s ward.

Moving, compassionate and intensely candid, Hard Pushed is a love letter to new mothers and to Leah’s fellow midwives – there for us at some of the most challenging, empowering and defining moments of our lives.

"Not of woman born, the Fortunate, the Unborn"—the terms designating those born by Caesarean section in medieval and Renaissance Europe were mysterious and ambiguous. Examining representations of Caesarean birth in legend and art and tracing its history in medical writing, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski addresses the web of religious, ethical, and cultural questions concerning abdominal delivery in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Not of Woman Born increases our understanding of the history of the medical profession, of medical iconography, and of ideas surrounding "unnatural" childbirth. Blumenfeld-Kosinski compares texts and visual images in order to trace the evolution of Caesarean birth as it was perceived by the main actors involved—pregnant women, medical practitioners, and artistic or literary interpreters. Bringing together medical treatises and texts as well as hitherto unexplored primary sources such as manuscript illuminations, she provides a fresh perspective on attitudes toward pregnancy and birth in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the meaning and consequences of medieval medicine for women as both patients and practitioners, and the professionalization of medicine. She discusses writings on Caesarean birth from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Church Councils ordered midwives to perform the operation if a mother died during childbirth in order that the child might be baptized; to the fourteenth century, when the first medical text, Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicinae, mentioned the operation; up to the gradual replacement of midwives by male surgeons in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Not of Woman Born offers the first close analysis of Frarnois Rousset's 1581 treatise on the operation as an example of sixteenth-century medical discourse. It also considers the ambiguous nature of Caesarean birth, drawing on accounts of such miraculous examples as the birth of the Antichrist. An appendix reviews the complex etymological history of the term "Caesarean section." Richly interdisciplinary, Not of Woman Born will enliven discussions of the controversial issues surrounding Caesarean delivery today. Medical, social, and cultural historians interested in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, historians, literary scholars, midwives, obstetricians, nurses, and others concerned with women's history will want to read it.

A multi-professional research team comprising practitioners, academics, service-users and students has undertaken a major research project on pre and post-registration students engaged in Social Work, Midwifery and Emergency Care (Nursing and Paramedicine) professional degrees. This book explores students' perceptions of the tools and methods used to assess their practice and the impact these processes have had on their learning and professionalism during their journey through the programme. A four-year longitudinal study comprising annual interviews with 14 students has enabled their developing understanding and changing views to emerge, rather than just gaining a snapshot as in previous literature.

Gynaecologists Catherine and Reg Hamlin left Australia in 1959 on a short contract to establish a midwifery school in Ethiopia. Over 40 years later, Catherine is still there, running one of the most outstanding medical programmes in the world. The Hamlins dedicated their lives to women suffering the catastrophic effects of obstructed labour. The awful injuries that such labour produces are called fistulae, and until the Hamlins began their work in Ethiopia, fistula sufferers were neglected and forgotten - a vast group of women facing a lifetime of incapacity and degradation. Catherine and Reg, with their team of dedicated fistula surgeons, have successfully operated on over 25,000 women, and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, the hospital they opened in 1974, has become a major teaching institution for gynaecologists from all over Ethiopia and the developing world. Since Reg's death, Catherine and her team have continued the work.