Towards the Humanisation of Birth

Towards the Humanisation of Birth
Author: Elizabeth Newnham
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2018-02-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319699628

This book examines the future of birthing practices, particularly by focusing on epidural analgesia in childbirth. It describes historical and cultural trajectories that have shaped the way in which birth is understood in Western, developed nations. In setting out the nature of epidural history, knowledge and practice, the book delves into related birth practices within the hospital setting. By critically examining these practices, which are embedded in a scientific discourse that rationalises and relies upon technology use, the authors argue that epidural analgesia has been positioned as a safe technology in contemporary maternity culture, despite it carrying particular risks. In examining alternative research the book proposes that increasing epidural rates are not only due to greater pain relief requirements or access but are influenced by technocratic values and a fragmented maternity system. The authors outline the way in which this epidural discourse influences how information is presented to women and how this affects their choices around the use of pain relief in labour.

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering
Author: Sarah Buckley
Publisher: Celestial Arts
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0307832031

An authoritative guide to natural childbirth and postpartum parenting options from an MD who home-birthed her own four children. Sarah Buckley might be called a third-wave natural birth advocate. A doctor and a mother, she approaches the question of how a woman and baby might have the most fulfilling birth experience with respect for the wisdom of both medical science and the human body. Using current medical and epidemiological research plus women's experiences (including her own), she demonstrates that what she calls "undisturbed birth" is almost always healthier and safer than high-technology approaches to birth. Her wise counsel on issues like breastfeeding and sleeping during postpartum helps extend the gentle birth experience into a gentle parenting relationship.

Gentle Birth Choices

Gentle Birth Choices
Author: Barbara Harper
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 586
Release: 2005-08-09
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1594778639

Birth as every woman would like it to be • Recommended by Lamaze International as one of the top ten books for pregnant women and their families • Includes a 45-minute DVD of six live gentle births • More than 32,000 copies sold of the original edition New parents are faced with a myriad of choices about pregnancy, labor, and birth. In Gentle Birth Choices Barbara Harper, renowned childbirth advocate, nurse, former midwife, and mother of three, helps to clarify these choices and shows how to plan a meaningful, family-centered birth experience. She dispels medical myths and reimagines birth without fear, pain, or violence. Harper explains the numerous gentle birth choices available, including giving birth in an independent birth center, at home, or in a hospital birthing room; finding a primary caregiver who shares your philosophy of birth; and deciding how to best use current technologies. She also provides practical advice for couples wishing to explore the option of using a doula or water during labor and birth to avoid the unwanted effects of drugs and epidurals. The Gentle Birth Choices DVD blends interviews with midwives and physicians and six actual births that illustrate the options of water birth, home birth, and vaginal birth after a prior Cesarean section. The DVD clearly reveals the strength of women during childbirth and the healthy and happy outcome of women exercising gentle birth choices. It is a powerful instructional tool, not only for expectant parents, but also for midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and doctors.

Anthropologies of Global Maternal and Reproductive Health

Anthropologies of Global Maternal and Reproductive Health
Author: Lauren J. Wallace
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030845141

This open access edited book brings together new research on the mechanisms by which maternal and reproductive health policies are formed and implemented in diverse locales around the world, from global policy spaces to sites of practice. The authors – both internationally respected anthropologists and new voices – demonstrate the value of ethnography and the utility of reproduction as a lens through which to generate rich insights into professionals’ and lay people’s intimate encounters with policy. Authors look closely at core policy debates in the history of global maternal health across six different continents, including: Women’s use of misoprostol for abortion in Burkina Faso The place of traditional birth attendants in global maternal health Donor-driven maternal health programs in Tanzania Efforts to integrate qualitative evidence in WHO maternal and child health policy-making Anthropologies of Global Maternal and Reproductive Health will engage readers interested in critical conversations about global health policy today. The broad range of foci makes it a valuable resource for teaching in medical anthropology, anthropology of reproduction, and interdisciplinary global health programs. The book will also find readership amongst critical public health scholars, health policy and systems researchers, and global public health practitioners.

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Author: Susan McCutcheon
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0525537996

The classic guide to an unmedicated childbirth, fully revised for the twenty-first century—with updated information and attractive new illustrations and photos throughout. For women birthing vaginally, 90% of Bradley births are drug-free! The Bradley Method®, used and praised by women for almost seventy years, prepares you for drug and surgery-free childbirth and puts you in control by providing the tools to navigate evidence-based care. Certified childbirth educator Susan McCutcheon, one of Dr. Bradley’s first students, now makes this natural approach to childbirth more accessible than ever. You will learn: • Exercises and nutrition to get your body ready for birthing • To defuse fear by understanding all aspects of laboring • How to involve your partner as a birth coach and a fully engaged participant • What’s driving the induction epidemic and how to avoid an unnecessary induction • What’s driving the cesarean surgery epidemic and how to reduce your risk • How to get the information you need to make informed decisions about your birth “The Bradley Method’s simple objective, through relaxation, breathing, and visualization, is a birth free of the interventions frequently offered to women in the different stages of childbirth: fetal monitors, drug-induced labor, anesthesia, episiotomy, and Caesarean section. (Its) other defining feature, the husband’s active participation in the delivery, is critical to this overall goal of an intervention-free birth.”—Mothering

How to Be Human

How to Be Human
Author: Paula Cocozza
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-05-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250129257

"On leave from work, unsettled by the proximity of her ex, and struggling with her hostile neighbors, Mary has become increasingly captivated by a magnificent fox who is always in her garden. First she sees him wink at her, then he brings her presents, and finally she invites him into her house. As the boundaries between the domestic and the wild blur, and the neighbors set out to exterminate the fox, it is unclear if Mary will save the fox, or the fox save Mary"--

Body Belly Soul

Body Belly Soul
Author: Nicole Bailey
Publisher: The Unapologetic Voice House
Total Pages: 95
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1955090173

This book is not only a personal journey of pregnancy and birth, it explains situations many new mothers find themselves in. Perhaps you’re an expecting mother that does not feel completely comfortable with your healthcare provider and you need direction on next steps. Maybe the idea of induction has been presented and you’re in need of holistic ways to jump-start labor. Or you’ve just given birth and find yourself experiencing breastfeeding woes, like clogged ducts and isolation due to generational disconnects. This book explores common scenarios that Black Mothers are finding themselves in every 40 weeks and so much more you wish your mom, auntie, or sister shared with you. This book is a guide for any Black mother refusing to give away her power in birthing spaces. The Black Mother who knows without a doubt her choices matter, her mindset matters, and who she surrounds herself with matters. This is for the Black mother ready to take accountability for her birth experience through thoughtful preparation despite the status quo. Birth does not happen to us. WE Birth babies! Includes: Checklists for each part of the preparation - Body, Belly and Soul A list of nourishing and replenishing food for you and your baby - Prenatal and Postnatal Holistic ways to train your body for D- Day Interventions explained - The reason and the consequences Affirmations and empowerment from our ancestors How to hold providers accountable Discovery of non-medical comfort measures Ways to ramp up Milk production

Caring and Well-being

Caring and Well-being
Author: Kathleen Galvin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1136181946

Something is missing in contemporary health and social care. Health and illness is often measured in policy documents in economic terms, and clinical outcomes are enmeshed in statistical data, with the patient’s experience left to one side. This stimulating book is concerned with how to humanise health and social care and keep the person at the centre of practice. Caring and Well-Being opens by articulating Galvin and Todres’ innovative framework for humanising health care and closes with a synthesis of their argument and a discussion of how this can be applied in healthcare policy and practice. It: presents an innovative lifeworld-led approach to the humanisation of care; explores the concept of well-being and its relationship to suffering and outlines the rationale for a focus on them within this approach; discusses how the framework can be applied and how health and social practitioners can draw on aesthetic and empathic avenues to help develop their capacity for care; provides direction for policy, practice and education. Investigating what it means to be human in a health and social care context and what the things that make us feel more human are, this book presents new perspectives about how professionals can enhance their capacity for humanly sensitive care. It is a valuable work for all those interested in ideas about care and caring in a health and social context, including psychologists, doctors and nurses.

Birth Models That Work

Birth Models That Work
Author: Robbie Davis-Floyd
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2009-03-07
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0520248635

"This book is a major contribution to the global struggle for control of women's bodies and their giving birth and should be read by all obstetricians, midwives, obstetric nurses, pregnant women and anyone else with interest in maternity care. It documents the worldwide success of programs for pregnancy and birth which honor the women and put them in control of their own reproductive lives."—Marsden Wagner, MD, author of Born In The USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First

Organisations and Humanisation

Organisations and Humanisation
Author: Myrte van de Klundert
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2016-06-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317085124

The term humanisation was introduced in humanistic studies to develop a humanist way of thinking about organisations and human relations. It stems from a need to think about questions of justice and living a good life in practice but not from some absolute or abstract point of view. As it is often framed, humanisation is concerned with working towards a more human type of organisation. Organisation studies are concerned with understanding organisations and their role in our society, and developing perspectives and methods to improve them, while humanisation theories, on the other hand, do not represent a managerial blueprint as they tend to incorporate notions of situated knowledge, sense-making and relational value, drawing our attention to specific processes rather than offering universal truths. Although Critical Management Studies counters mainstream managerialism, it still tends to produce the same kind of ‘truths’ that are supposed to apply to all organisations. Much of the existing management literature is related to control and offers strategies on how to do things but this is not about prescriptions, rather how to explore possibilities from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It offers managers as well as theoreticians of organisations the possibility to question their grounding principles. In the variety of contributions to this book the authors reflect on their understanding of what it is to be human and whether this can be found in the way that organisations are run. They consider the value of humanisation to understand and intervene in organisations and the challenges they face.