Optimal Care in Childbirth (UK printing) - Softcover

Henci Goer; Amy Romano

4.47

73 ratings by Goodreads

9781780661100: Optimal Care in Childbirth (UK printing)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178066110X ISBN 13: 9781780661100

Publisher: Pinter & Martin Ltd., 2013

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Not for sale in the US and Canada.

What practices and policies best promote safe, healthy, satisfying labour and birth? What harms do routine or frequent use of tests, procedures, and restrictions introduce? What nonmedical factors drive the current maternity care system?

Meticulously documented, Optimal Care in Childbirth: The Case for a Physiologic Approach pulls back the curtain on medical-model management of childbirth. Written for those who want to practice according to the best evidence, assist women in making informed decisions, or advocate for maternity care reforms, Optimal Care in Childbirth provides an in-depth analysis of the evidence basis for physiologic care as the standard of care.

The book examines:

why the research shows so little benefit for physiologic care and so little harm from medical-model management
what's behind the caesarean epidemic
what the research establishes as optimal care for initiating labour, facilitating labour progress, guarding maternal and fetal safety, birthing the baby, and promoting safety for mother and baby after the birth
the true, quantified risks of primary caesarean surgery, planned VBAC versus elective repeat caesarean, instrumental vaginal delivery, and regional analgesia
how the organization of the maternity care system adversely impacts care outcomes

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About the Author:

Henci Goer, award-winning medical writer and internationally known speaker, has made it her life's work to analyze and synthesize the maternity care research in order to determine what constitutes safe, effective, satisfying care in childbirth. An independent scholar, she has become an acknowledged expert on evidence-based maternity care. Her first book, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities, to which this book is the successor, was a valued resource for childbirth professionals. Wanting to give pregnant women and their families the same access to the research evidence and therefore the ability to make informed decisions about their care, she followed it with The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. Over the years, she has written consumer education pamphlets and numerous articles for trade, consumer, and academic periodicals. She served as project director and participated as an Expert Work Group member on the document, "Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care" on behalf of the Coalition for Improvement in Maternity Services. Currently, she is a resident expert on Lamaze International's website where she moderates the "Ask Henci" forum and appears as a regular guest blogger on Science & Sensibility. Goer's major in biology at Brandeis University, her teaching experience as a Lamaze certified childbirth educator, and her work as a doula have served her well in her chosen career. Amy Romano has worked in the maternity care field as a clinician, research analyst, educator, and consumer advocate since 2001. In 2010, she joined Childbirth Connection, where she directs the Transforming Maternity Care Partnership, a national effort to improve maternity care quality in the United States. Prior to joining Childbirth Connection, she practiced midwifery in the home, birth centre, and hospital settings and taught in the nurse-midwifery program at the Yale School of Nursing. She also spent six years as a perinatal research and advocacy consultant to Lamaze International, where she analyzed, summarized, and critiqued research for the Lamaze community and launched the award-winning research blog, Science & Sensibility. Romano was also a member of the editorial team for the 9th edition of the landmark women's health book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, released in 2011. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and both a certificate and masters' degree in nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. Romano was the 2012 recipient of the Kitty Ernst Award, one of the American College of Nurse-Midwives' highest honours.

Review:

"Optimal Care in Childbirth: The Case for a Physiologic Approach contains an extraordinary wealth of information, each chapter standing on its own so that it can be read independently. The authors have met with rigor and wisdom their goal of separating 'the wheat from the chaff' in this examination of the scientic literature. They have given a rst-rate resource to the entire maternity care community - health professionals, practitioners, policy makers, administrators, advocates, and interested women. For those who want to bring about needed reform in maternity care, this scholarly and indispensable book has provided the tools. Indeed, Henci Goer and Amy Romano offer a new 'gold standard' to follow for maternity care." Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care "Goer and Romano (2012) untangle the vast web of information about medical and physiologic birth and in doing so have made a major contribution to the birth literature." Journal of Perinatal Education

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