Supportive Care and Midwifery

This book considers the broad range of support given to mothers including social, psychological and clinical. It also looks at the provision of this service and how different models have been set up internationally to fulfill this important function. It brings together the latest research findings, which examine the nature of care that is provided and consider what constitutes effective and efficient support.

This aspect of care is considered a crucial part of the increasing and expanding role of the midwife. The ability of midwives to provide ongoing support throughout childbearing is one of the features of midwifery care which distinguishes it from other care providers. This is a feature which is common to the resurgence of midwifery throughout the world and therefore this text will have international appeal.

Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Making sense of support; Systems of health care and maternity care provision; The provision of support during childbearing; Supportive midwifery care; Support in labour; The doula; Support for the carer; Conclusion; References; Index "This book provides a great resource throughout which the uses and misuses of research evidence emerge. The book will be valuable to all students and health care professionals and managers involved in maternity services."

Journal of Advanced Nursing

"A goldmine for students...invaluable to managers. This book is as clever and subversive as Marjorie Tew's Safer Childbirth and it should prove to be as influential."

MIDIRS Midwifery Digest

'If support were a drug it would be unethical not to use it.'

(Klaus et al. 1993)

Rosemary Mander is a Reader at The University of Edinburgh

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.