Supportive Care and Midwifery (eBook)

Rosemary Mander is a Reader at The University of Edinburgh

Supportive Care and Midwifery 1
Contents 7
Foreword 9
Acknowledgements 11
Introduction 13
1 Making sense of support 19
Terminology 19
The nature of support 20
How social support works 23
Issues 25
Support and health 28
Conclusion 31
2 Systems of health care and maternity care provision 33
Issues in the organisation of health care 33
Issues in the organisation of maternity care 36
Three systems of maternity care 50
Discussion 57
3 The provision of support during childbearing 59
Stress in childbearing 59
The effects of support in childbearing 62
Informal carers 73
Conclusion 79
4 Supportive midwifery care 80
Evaluative methods 80
Evaluative criteria 83
Support in innovative midwifery care 87
Supportive midwifery care at discrete points in the childbearing cycle 93
Conclusion 96
5 Support in labour 98
Research related issues 99
The research 100
The non-institutional birth environment 123
Conclusion 123
6 The doula 125
Origins and meanings 125
The doula's characteristics 127
The significance of the doula 141
Implications for other maternity personnel 144
Conclusion 144
7 Support for the carer 146
Staff support in general 147
Nurses' support 149
Burnout 151
Supervision 156
A research project 159
Summary 172
8 Conclusion 174
Analysis of the situation 174
The relevance of the research 175
Comparable scenarios 176
Conclusion 181
References 183
Index 200

"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)