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Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 132, Winter 2019.Join Midwifery Today Online MembershipVulnerability during pregnancy has harmful consequences for the child in the first years of life. There are various initiatives in Flanders, and abroad, to more efficiently identify and support vulnerable pregnancies. Nevertheless, there are still many possibilities in Flanders to enhance the pre- and postnatal care path to meet the needs of vulnerable pregnant women. In this article, we present the results of the first phase of a project-based scientific research of the Artesis Plantijn (AP) University College Antwerp. The project developed a detection tool and a prenatal care pathway, tailored to the needs of vulnerable pregnant women. A crucial starting question was what vulnerability means in pregnancy. Because the literature is inconclusive, we asked experts in the field about the concept of vulnerability in pregnancy and the operational possibilities of using a detection tool by midwives. We organised focus groups and interviews with midwives and with representatives from the social services. The combination of both of these professional areas provides similar, but also dissonant, insights about the concept of vulnerability. Introduction A preventive approach, proper health monitoring, and appropriate care provision can deliver health benefits to vulnerable groups (Viergever 2013). The ways in which vulnerable pregnant women receive care was subject to several recent studies in neighbouring countries (De Groot et al. 2016; Barlow et al. 2016). In Flanders, too, in recent years, increasing attention has been given to the care process for vulnerable pregnant women and young mothers (Fobelets et al. 2014; Beeckman, Louckx, and Putman 2010). The practice does not fall behind, with projects such as Child and Family, Public Centre for Social Welfare, maternity care expertise centres and local networks such as the Perinataal Antwerps Netwerk Zwangerschap in Armoede (PANZA)… Read more…. Considerations for a Prenatal Detection Tool for Vulnerable Pregnant Women

 Read more…. Considerations for a Prenatal Detection Tool for Vulnerable Pregnant Women

This question was the title of a book intended for the British public (Odent 2017). In the United Kingdom, everybody is familiar with the term midwife. Traditionally, midwives were considered vital and respectable persons. There is even a Royal College of Midwives.

 Read more…. Do We Need Midwives?

Birth is not solely the journey of the physical body, of a baby and a mother, but rather an entire constellation changing shape as a new soul emerges from water to land. The process of birth encompasses the whole universe and mystery of life—it means surrendering everything that one knows, accepting what reveals itself in the moment, and merging into the unbounded life beyond body and mind.

 Read more…. Rose and Saffira’s Birth

If you say “Just take an Uber!” or “Call Lyft,” to most people in this country, they not only know what you are talking about, but how to do it. Me? I haven’t a clue. I haven’t taken public transportation—not a taxi, not a bus, not the “T” (I live in Boston)—in 30 years.

 Read more…. A Midwife and Her Wheels

The Modern Maternity Service System (MMSS) provides classroom training and face-to-face training in many hospitals across China. We have made many wonderful changes toward delivering respectful woman-, baby-, and family-centered care that supports the normal physiology of childbirth.

 Read more…. Integrating Maternity Care in China

The “alternative” movement around birthing options is beginning to blossom in France—more rapidly in the last few years. Although birth centers were nonexistent before, a few mothers seeking natural births have managed to have them at home with sage femmes (literally, wise women) who support non-medicalized births. However, this option is being threatened as fewer sage femmes are willing to attend homebirths due to the obstacles found in their practice. Only recently have birth centers or birth homes become a new option for mothers. This is a good alternative for women who can’t find an active homebirth midwife in their area, or who don’t want to birth at home or in a highly medicalized environment—which is the case for the great majority of hospitals in France. In 2016, nine maisons de naissance received a green light to function on an “experimental title.” At the same time, the unavailability of homebirth midwives has propelled some couples to plan unassisted births.

 Read more…. Birth in France: The Maisons de Naissance Experimental Project and the Horizon of Homebirth

She pulled up in the dark driveway, headlights briefly illuminating the gray paneling on the side of the house. She carefully made her way across the toy-strewn yard and approached the front door, laden with her heavy birth bags. The door opened quietly enough and she slipped off her shoes as she entered.

 Read more…. A Simple Birth

“Whenever the midwife came, we all got quiet. We knew things were going to happen then; the baby was really coming. She’d go into the bedroom with our mama and come out with a baby,” my husband recalled.

 Read more…. The Spectrum of Traditions in Childbirth in Mexico

Country Contacts – Issue 132

 Read more…. Country Contacts – Issue 132