Midwives and Mothers

Midwives and Mothers PDF Author: Sheila Cosminsky
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477311394
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The World Health Organization is currently promoting a policy of replacing traditional or lay midwives in countries around the world. As part of an effort to record the knowledge of local midwives before it is lost, Midwives and Mothers explores birth, illness, death, and survival on a Guatemalan sugar and coffee plantation, or finca, through the lives of two local midwives, Do�a Maria and her daughter Do�a Siriaca, and the women they have served over a forty-year period. By comparing the practices and beliefs of the mother and daughter, Sheila Cosminsky shows the dynamics of the medicalization process and the contestation between the midwives and biomedical personnel, as the latter try to impose their system as the authoritative one. She discusses how the midwives syncretize, integrate, or reject elements from Mayan, Spanish, and biomedical systems. The midwives' story becomes a lens for understanding the impact of medicalization on people's lives and the ways in which women's bodies have become contested terrain between traditional and contemporary medical practices. Cosminsky also makes recommendations for how ethno-obstetric and biomedical systems may be accommodated, articulated, or integrated. Finally, she places the changes in the birthing system in the larger context of changes in the plantation system, including the elimination of coffee growing, which has made women, traditionally the primary harvesters of coffee beans, more economically dependent on men.

Midwives and Mothers

Midwives and Mothers PDF Author: Sheila Cosminsky
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477311394
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
The World Health Organization is currently promoting a policy of replacing traditional or lay midwives in countries around the world. As part of an effort to record the knowledge of local midwives before it is lost, Midwives and Mothers explores birth, illness, death, and survival on a Guatemalan sugar and coffee plantation, or finca, through the lives of two local midwives, Do�a Maria and her daughter Do�a Siriaca, and the women they have served over a forty-year period. By comparing the practices and beliefs of the mother and daughter, Sheila Cosminsky shows the dynamics of the medicalization process and the contestation between the midwives and biomedical personnel, as the latter try to impose their system as the authoritative one. She discusses how the midwives syncretize, integrate, or reject elements from Mayan, Spanish, and biomedical systems. The midwives' story becomes a lens for understanding the impact of medicalization on people's lives and the ways in which women's bodies have become contested terrain between traditional and contemporary medical practices. Cosminsky also makes recommendations for how ethno-obstetric and biomedical systems may be accommodated, articulated, or integrated. Finally, she places the changes in the birthing system in the larger context of changes in the plantation system, including the elimination of coffee growing, which has made women, traditionally the primary harvesters of coffee beans, more economically dependent on men.

Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home

Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home PDF Author: Mary Steen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136595821
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home describes and discusses the main challenges and issues that midwives and maternity services encounter when preparing for and attending a home birth. To ensure that a home birth is a real option for women, midwives need to be able to believe in a woman’s ability to give birth at home and to promote this birth option, providing evidence-based information about benefits and risks. This practical guide will help midwives to have the necessary skills, resources and confidence to support homebirth. The book includes: the present birth choices a woman has the implications homebirth has upon midwifery practice how midwives can prepare and support women and their families the midwife’s role and responsibilities national and local policies, guidelines and available resources pain management options With a range of recent home birth case studies brought together in the final chapter, this accessible text provides a valuable insight into those considering homebirth. Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home will be of interest to students studying issues around normal birth and will be an important resource for clinically based midwives, in particular community based midwives, home birth midwifery teams, independent midwives, and all who are interested in homebirth as a genuine choice.

Breastfeeding in Hospital

Breastfeeding in Hospital PDF Author: Fiona Dykes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134157185
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers – frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalized surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives. Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals. It highlights that, in spite of heavy promotion of breastfeeding, there is often a lack of support for women who begin to breastfeed in hospitals, thus challenging the current system of postnatal care within a culture in which neither service-user nor provider feel satisfied. Incorporating recommendations for policy and practice on infant feeding, Breastfeeding in Hospital is highly relevant to health professionals and breastfeeding supporters as well as to students in health and social care, medical anthropology and medical sociology, as it explores practice issues while contextualising them within a broad social, political and economic context.

Maternal and Newborn Care

Maternal and Newborn Care PDF Author: Joanita De Kock
Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd
ISBN: 9780702164026
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
The midwife's role is examined in the community and family-health context in this handbook on effective maternal and newborn care for midwives and other healthcare providers. The skills, competencies, and knowledge required to make informed decisions about neo- and postnatal care are covered, including anatomy and the physiology of reproduction, high-risk pregnancies, and labor and birth. Theoretical and practical issues illuminate a midwife's role in the prevention of illness in mothers and babies, with attention to the unique challenges of midwifery in developing nations. Insights from current research studies and critical questions about midwife practice will help those new to health care understand the unique challenges of this form of health-service delivery.

A Book for Midwives

A Book for Midwives PDF Author: Susan Klein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780230021037
Category : Childbirth
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description


Giving Birth

Giving Birth PDF Author: Catherine Taylor
Publisher: Perigee Trade
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Offers an evocative and insightful look at the world of midwives and their role in childbirth, providing a thorough analysis and helpful advice on using a midwife as an alternative to physician-aided hospital delivery to bring one's child into the world.

Pushing for Midwives

Pushing for Midwives PDF Author: Christa Craven
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 9781439902196
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
With the increasing demand for midwives, activists are lobbying to loosen restrictions that deny legal access to homebirth options. In Pushing for Midwives, Christa Craven presents a nuanced history of women’s reproductive rights activism in the U.S. She also provides an examination of contemporary organizing strategies for reproductive rights in an era increasingly driven by “consumer rights.” An historical and ethnographic case study of grassroots organizing, Pushing for Midwives is an in-depth look at the strategies, successes, and challenges facing midwifery activists in Virginia. Craven examines how decades-old race and class prejudices against midwives continue to impact opposition to—as well as divisions within—women’s contemporary legislative efforts for midwives. By placing the midwifery struggle within a broader reproductive rights context, Pushing for Midwives encourages activists to reconsider how certain political strategies have the potential to divide women. This reflection is crucial in the wake of neoliberal political-economic shifts that have prioritized the rights of consumers over those of citizens—particularly if activists hope to maintain their commitment to expanding reproductive rights for all women.

Mourner, Mother, Midwife

Mourner, Mother, Midwife PDF Author: L. Juliana M. Claassens
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 066423836X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Juliana Claassens explores alternative Old Testament metaphors that portray God as mourner, mother, and midwife--images that resist the violence and bloodshed associated with the dominant warrior imagery

Ways of Knowing about Birth

Ways of Knowing about Birth PDF Author: Robbie Davis-Floyd
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478636491
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
There is no other living scholar with Davis-Floyd’s solid roots, activism, and scholarly achievements on the combined subjects of childbirth, midwifery, obstetrics, and medicine. Ways of Knowing about Birth brings together an astounding array of her most popular and essential works, all updated for this volume, spanning over three decades of research and writing from the perspectives of cultural, medical, and symbolic anthropology. The 16 essays capture Robbie Davis-Floyd’s unique voice, which brims with wisdom, compassion, and deep understanding. Intentionally cast as stand-alone pieces, the chapters offer the ultimate in classroom flexibility and include discussion questions and recommended films.

A Book for Midwives

A Book for Midwives PDF Author: Susan Klein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description