Vol 7 Issue 2
Focus on childbirth education
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Values in education
- Mixed messages in antenatal education
- Active birth education
- Advocacy for birthing women
- Supporting women with PTSD following birth
- Breastfeeding education in nursery schools
- NCT: UK’s leading charity for parents
Author title: Dr Kate Levett, Professor Hannah Dahlen
Description: Is childbirth education supported within the broader maternity system to achieve the best possible outcomes for women and babies?
Description writer: Dr Kate Levett of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Auburn Clinical School. Ms Kerry Sutcliffe of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Auburn Clinical School. Professor Hannah Dahlen of Western Sydney University, School of Nursing and Midwifery
TAG: Antenatal education for birth and early parenting
Author: Neel Shah
Author title: Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs,
Description: Neel Shah argues that maternal mortality is fundamentally a failure of social support. Where maternal deaths are taking place and what needs to change
Description writer: Neel Shah, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs, argues that maternal mortality is fundamentally a failure of social support.
TAG: Mental Health
Author: Cindy L. Farley
Author title: Associate Professor, Georgetown University, USA,
Description: Cindy L Farley advocacy efforts in concert with the World Health Organization’s global campaign to build a maternity care workforce that is competent, caring, evidence-informed, and provides all women everywhere with access to a midwife.
Description writer: Associate Professor, Georgetown University, USA
Author: Janet Balaskas
Description: Janet Balakas, Active Birth Advocate, describes her philosophy of active birth. She shares her best practice ideas for educating and supporting women to work with their bodies to realise their potential to give birth to their babies powerfully and joyfully.
Description writer: Founder of the Active Birth Movement
TAG: Labour and birth, Antenatal education for birth and early parenting
Author: Alys Einion
Author title: Associate Professor of Midwifery and Women’s Health, Swansea University
Description: The focus of this article is on understanding the nature of birth stories and their power, and how we might change current narratives to support women to reclaim their authority and autonomy over birth, acknowledging both its agony and its ecstasy.
Description writer: Associate Professor of Midwifery and Women’s Health, Swansea University
TAG: Labour and birth
Author: Cardiff University
Description: A study from Cardiff University dentifying what influences the use of birth pools in the UK. This work is part of the POOL study – a larger piece of research investigating the safety of waterbirth for mothers and babies.
Author: Emma Svanberg, Julianne Boutaleb
Author title: Emma Svanberg, Clinical Psychologist & Co-Founder of Make Birth Better, UK Julianne Boutaleb, Consultant Perinatal Psychologist, Parenthood in Mind, UK
Description: This article will briefly outline a definition of birth trauma, describe the impact on the infant and the mother-infant relationship, consider the role of fathers and partners and offer suggestions for improving the parent-infant relationship. Promoting the parent-infant bond after a traumatic birth could lessen the wider impact of birth trauma.
Description writer: Emma Svanberg, Clinical Psychologist & Co-Founder of Make Birth Better, UK Julianne Boutaleb, Consultant Perinatal Psychologist, Parenthood in Mind, UK
TAG: Attachment and early relationships
Author: Elizabeth Smith, Sarah Edwards, Amy Bryson
Author title: Elizabeth Smith, Breastfeeding Advocacy Lead for Scotland and Queen’s Nurse Sarah Edwards, Scottish Programme Manager, The Breastfeeding Network Amy Bryson, Community Peer Support Co-ordinator, The Breastfeeding Network
Description: Working for NHS Ayrshire and Arran in an area where breastfeeding rates are amongst the lowest in Scotland, the authors undertook a project to introduce breastfeeding to nursery children and promote it to young people in school.
Description writer: Elizabeth Smith, Breastfeeding Advocacy Lead for Scotland and Queen’s Nurse Sarah Edwards, Scottish Programme Manager, The Breastfeeding Network Amy Bryson, Community Peer Support Co-ordinator, The Breastfeeding Network
Author: Kathryn Kelly
Author title: NCT Tutor, Assessor and Excellent Practitioner, UK
Description: This article explores what is meant by ‘values’, what has been said about values in education, and considers the relevance to perinatal education. How they affect what we do and how we work, and how we generate our own personal set of values.
Description writer: NCT Tutor, Assessor and Excellent Practitioner, UK
TAG: Antenatal education for birth and early parenting
Author: Elizabeth Newnham
Author title: Lecturer in Midwifery
Description: This article is a summary of an ethnographic study of epidural analgesia that was undertaken in a large hospital providing maternity services in Australia. Covering informed consent and how information about birth options is produced, provided and discussed.
Description writer: Lecturer in Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Australia
TAG: Antenatal education for birth and early parenting
Author: Sarah McMullen
Author title: Head of Research, NCT, UK
Description: NCT was founded in 1956 and has since supported millions of women and parents through birth and early parenthood, through a blend of paid-for and free-to-access services, whilst also securing major advances in professional practice and public policy.
Description writer: Head of Research, NCT, UK
