Midwives, Society and Childbirth is the first book to examine midwives' lives and work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on a national and international scale. Focusing on six countries from Europe, the approach is interdisciplinary with the studies written by a diverse team of social, medical and midwifery historians, sociologists, and those with experience in delivering childbirth services. Questioning for the first time many conventional historical assumptions, this book is fundamental to a better understanding of the effect on midwives of the unprecedented progress of science in general and obstetric science in particular from the late nineteenth century. The contributors challenge the traditional bleak picture of midwives' decline in the face of institutional obstetrics, medical technology, and the growing power of the medical profession, while stressing the importance of regional influences and locality. Dr Anne Marie Rafferty, Philadelphia, Dr Hilary Marland, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Dr Irvine Louden, Oxfordshire, Joan Mottram, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medic

Midwives, Society and Childbirth is the first book to examine midwives' lives and work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on a national and international scale. Focusing on six countries from Europe, the approach is interdisciplinary with the studies written by a diverse team of social, medical and midwifery historians, sociologists, and those with experience in delivering childbirth services.
Questioning for the first time many conventional historical assumptions, this book is fundamental to a better understanding of the effect on midwives of the unprecedented progress of science in general and obstetric science in particular from the late nineteenth century. The contributors challenge the traditional bleak picture of midwives' decline in the face of institutional obstetrics, medical technology, and the growing power of the medical profession, while stressing the importance of regional influences and locality.


Related link: The Society for the Social History of Medicine
eBook available with sample pages: 0203435893

Nursing history has become a reflective area of scholarship, which recognizes the inescapable social, political, economic and cultural factors infuencing the profession. This volume highlights the significant contribution that researching nursing history has to make in settling a new intellectual and political agenda for nurses. Reflecting the international scale of current research, 17 contributors look at nursing from different perspectives, as it has developed under different regimes and ideologies and at different points in time in America, Australia, Britain, Germany, India, the Phillipines and South Africa. They examine the ways in which the nursing workforce is segmented and stratified along race, class and gender lines and how differences of culture undermine attempts to theorise nursing and healh care in universal terms. Comparing the problems and potential of the equal rights and difference approaches, they propose strategies for achieving greater recognition for nursing, to bring it into line with other related, yet male-dominated professions within the health care arena.

Nursing history has become a reflective area of scholarship, which recognizes the inescapable social, political, economic and cultural factors infuencing the profession. This volume highlights the significant contribution that researching nursing history has to make in settling a new intellectual and political agenda for nurses. Reflecting the international scale of current research, 17 contributors look at nursing from different perspectives, as it has developed under different regimes and ideologies and at different points in time in America, Australia, Britain, Germany, India, the Phillipines and South Africa. They examine the ways in which the nursing workforce is segmented and stratified along race, class and gender lines and how differences of culture undermine attempts to theorise nursing and healh care in universal terms. Comparing the problems and potential of the "equal" rights and "difference" approaches, they propose strategies for achieving greater recognition for nursing, to bring it into line with other related, yet male-dominated professions within the health care arena.

The Politics of Nursing Knowledge puts into context the historical factors which have shaped and sometimes limited the development of nurse education. Anne Marie Rafferty makes a critical reappraisal of Florence Nightingale's vision of nursing and looks at how training and policy-making have evolved from the origins of hospital reform in the 1860s to the start of the National Health Service in 1948.
Highlighting the contemporary issues confronting all those in training, the book questions the extent to which nursing fits into the mould of both a profession and an academic discipline. Based on substantial new research, The Politics of Nursing Knowledge is a valuable resource for nursing students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The Politics of Nursing Knowledge puts into context the historical factors which have shaped and sometimes limited the development of nurse education. Anne Marie Rafferty makes a critical reappraisal of Florence Nightingale's vision of nursing and looks at how training and policy-making have evolved from the origins of hospital reform in the 1860s to the start of the National Health Service in 1948.
Highlighting the contemporary issues confronting all those in training, the book questions the extent to which nursing fits into the mould of both a profession and an academic discipline. Based on substantial new research, The Politics of Nursing Knowledge is a valuable resource for nursing students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Germs and governance brings together leading historians, practitioners and policy makers to consider the past, present and future of hospital infection control. Combining historical case-studies with practitioner experiences, this volume offers a new understanding of the emergence of theories of germ transmission and containment and how these theories played out in real-world environments, networks and professional organisations. Exploring the historical context in which technologies like gloves were developed and popularised, as well as how relationships between communities and hospitals, doctors and nurses, and the emerging role of hospital bacteriologists have shaped infection control practices, the collection emphasises the diverse contexts in which ideas about germs, infection and safety circulated. The volume also addresses the historical neglect of the critical role of nurses in the development and success of infection control measures. -- .

In recent years the study of nursing history in Britain has been transformed by the application of concepts and methods from the social sciences to original sources. The myths and legends which have grown up through a century of anecdotal writing have been chipped away to reveal the complex story of an occupation shaped and reshaped by social and technological change. Most of the work has been scattered in monographs, journals and edited collections. The skills of a social historian, a sociologist and a graduate nurse have been brought together to rethink the history of modern nursing in the light of the latest scholarship. The account starts by looking at the type of nursing care available in 1800. This was usually provided by the sick person's family or household servants. It traces the interdependent growth of general nursing and the modern hospital and examines the separate origins and eventual integration of mental nursing, district nursing, health visiting and midwifery. It concludes with reflections on the prospects for nursing in the year 2000.

Combining the skills of a social historian, a sociologist and a graduate nurse, this book traces the history of nursing from 1800 and speculates on the future of nursing in the year 2000. This book should be of interest to students in nursing, social administration, medical sociology and the history of nursing.

This Reader reproduces fifteen classic and influential accounts of nursing research selected by a panel of senior nurse researchers and teachers. It provides accompanying commentary explaining why the research is good, how it relates to the research tradition and the influence and impact of the piece of research.
Introductory and concluding chapters review the literature on the evaluation of research and the position of nursing research in relation to that conducted in medicine generally. Exemplary Research for Nursing and Midwifery provides an invaluablevade mecum for any nurse of midwife embarking on the research process.

Florence Nightingale remains an inspiration to nurses around the world for her pioneering work treating wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War; authorship of Notes on Nursing, the foundational text for nursing practice; establishment of the world's first nursing school; and advocacy for the hygienic treatment of patients and sanitary design of hospitals.

In Notes on Nightingale, nursing historians and scholars offer their valuable reflections on Nightingale and analysis of her role in the profession a century after her death on 13 August 1910 and 150 years since the Nightingale School of Nursing (now the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College, London) opened its doors to probationers at St Thomas' Hospital.

There is a great deal of controversy about Nightingale opinions about her life and work range from blind worship to blanket denunciation. The question of Nightingale and her place in nursing history and in contemporary nursing discourse is a topic of continuing interest for nursing students, teachers, and professional associations. This book offers new scholarship on Nightingale's work in the Crimea and the British colonies and her connection to the emerging science of statistics, as well as valuable reevaluations of her evolving legacy and the surrounding myths, symbolism, and misconceptions.

Contributors: Judith Godden, University of Sydney; Carol Helmstadter, RN (Toronto); Joan E. Lynaugh, University of Pennsylvania; M. Eileen Magnello, University College London; Lynn McDonald, University of Guelph; Sioban Nelson, University of Toronto; Anne Marie Rafferty, King's College, London; Rachel Verney, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (Visiting Associate, August 2009); Rosemary Wall, King's College, London"

Germs and governance brings together leading historians, practitioners and policy makers to consider the past, present and future of hospital infection control. Combining historical case-studies with practitioner experiences, this volume offers a new understanding of the emergence of theories of germ transmission and containment and how these theories played out in real-world environments, networks and professional organisations. Exploring the historical context in which technologies like gloves were developed and popularised, as well as how relationships between communities and hospitals, doctors and nurses, and the emerging role of hospital bacteriologists have shaped infection control practices, the collection emphasises the diverse contexts in which ideas about germs, infection and safety circulated. The volume also addresses the historical neglect of the critical role of nurses in the development and success of infection control measures. -- .

Florence Nightingale remains an inspiration to nurses around the world for her pioneering work treating wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War; authorship of Notes on Nursing, the foundational text for nursing practice; establishment of the world's first nursing school; and advocacy for the hygienic treatment of patients and sanitary design of hospitals.

In Notes on Nightingale, nursing historians and scholars offer their valuable reflections on Nightingale and analysis of her role in the profession a century after her death on 13 August 1910 and 150 years since the Nightingale School of Nursing (now the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College, London) opened its doors to probationers at St Thomas' Hospital.

There is a great deal of controversy about Nightingale opinions about her life and work range from blind worship to blanket denunciation. The question of Nightingale and her place in nursing history and in contemporary nursing discourse is a topic of continuing interest for nursing students, teachers, and professional associations. This book offers new scholarship on Nightingale's work in the Crimea and the British colonies and her connection to the emerging science of statistics, as well as valuable reevaluations of her evolving legacy and the surrounding myths, symbolism, and misconceptions.

Contributors: Judith Godden, University of Sydney; Carol Helmstadter, RN (Toronto); Joan E. Lynaugh, University of Pennsylvania; M. Eileen Magnello, University College London; Lynn McDonald, University of Guelph; Sioban Nelson, University of Toronto; Anne Marie Rafferty, King's College, London; Rachel Verney, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (Visiting Associate, August 2009); Rosemary Wall, King's College, London"