Vol 9 Issue 1
FOCUS ON: HOME BIRTH, FREE BIRTH AND INDUCTION OF LABOUR
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Why women freebirth
- Making home birth a choice
- Supporting choice around induction
- Women’s experience of induction
- Reframing early pregnancy
- The Early Years Practitioner in a Perinatal Mental Health Service
Author: Mary Nolan
Author title: Professor
Description: Professor Mary Nolan explores how we explain induction choices to parents when the choices are not clear.
Description writer: Professor of Perinatal Education, College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Worcester, UK
Author: Scott Mair
Author title: Expert by Experience
Description: Scott Mair argues that if dads are to be properly supported, professionals need to include them equally with mothers in education for labour, birth and early parenting.
Description writer: Mental Health Advocate
Author: Alex Smith
Author title: Childbirth Educator
Description: Alex Smith, a regular writer for the Journal, describes how childbirth educators can make home birth a positive and realistic choice for parents.
Description writer: Childbirth Educator
Author: Melanie K. Jackson,
Author title: PhD, Research Midwife
Description: Melanie Jackson from Australia examines why women are opting more frequently to freebirth and what needs to be done to enable them to choose to birth ‘within the system’.
Description writer: PhD, Research Midwife at Western Sydney University, Australia, and Private Midwife
Author: Annabel Jay
Author title: PhD, Principal Lecturer, Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, UK (ret’d)
Description: Induction of Labour (IoL) is one of the most frequently performed non-emergency procedures in childbirth in developed countries This article will explain methods of IoL, past and present, and will discuss the main themes from three recent systematic reviews into women’s experience of induced labour and other recent studies. Women’s use of alternative and complementary medicines (CAM) for IoL will also be considered, along with suggestions for improving care.
Description writer: Annabel Jay, PhD, Principal Lecturer, Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, UK (ret’d)
Author: Lara Freidenfelds
Author title: Ph.D
Description: How American childbearing culture changed between the time of the American Revolution and today, and why these changes have led to an unwarranted expectation of perfect pregnancies and emotional devastation in the face of even very early pregnancy losses. Pregnancy-support professionals have an important role in setting and managing expectations about pregnancy, and supporting couples who experience loss.
Author: Rachel O’Brien, Caroline Mitchell
Description: Early years practitioners are the newest role to be integrated into the recently expanded Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service in Sussex in the south of the UK. We aim to share our reflections, as a clinical psychologist and an early years practitioner, on the experience of developing, integrating and working in this role in a Perinatal Mental Health team.
Description writer: Coastal West Sussex Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Author: Amy Dawes, Kate Waterford
Author title: Amy Dawes, CEO, Australasian Birth Trauma Association
Kate Waterford, Chair, Australasian Birth Trauma Association
Description: The Australasian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA) is a registered charity operating in Australia and New Zealand, whose mission is to work for safer births and better healing from birth trauma.
Description writer: Amy Dawes, CEO, Australasian Birth Trauma Association
Kate Waterford, Chair, Australasian Birth Trauma Association
