"This book contains a collection of the most recent insights regarding maternal morbidity and mortality and optimization of the care processes during acute critical illness. The volume represents a practical resource to be used in real-time by medical practitioners faced with a woman who is critically ill during pregnancy and the peripartum period. By providing concise tools for disease identifiers and management flow-charts, the Editors aimed to increase awareness and improve processes of care for this population. Many care paradigms for obstetric patients are currently unstandardized, unfocused and often do not follow a pre-determined path. Each chapter will provide the practitioner with updated information on how to identify specific critical conditions and how to manage them once they have been identified, to enhance recognition and readiness. This book should be used as a resource to improve the quality of care administered to obstetric patients, to reduce fragmented care processes and to improve interdisciplinary co-ordination and communication, with the overall aim of decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality. Therefore, this book represents an invaluable guide to specialists in critical care, anesthesia and obstetrics as well as to intensive care nurses and midwives."

Involving a third person in a child's conception raises many difficult issues and dilemmas. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the place of third party assisted conception within health care provision, drawing on local ethical and religious standpoints as well as political and economic factors. Eric Blyth and Ruth Landau have brought together authors from a broad range of professional backgrounds to consider the social, legal and ethical aspects of third party assisted conception in thirteen countries dispersed through North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Third Party Assisted Conception Across Cultures addresses many contemporary social issues including the role of the state in family creation, the changing forms and conceptualizations of a 'family' and concerns about the potential commodification of body-parts and functions. All health care practitioners and policymakers who wish to develop their knowledge and understanding of the policies underlying third party assisted conception practice and the ethical context surrounding it, will find this book invaluable.