Theme: Trends vs. Traditions
Both trends and traditions can be important in birth; yet they may conflict with each other. Some may even be harmful. This issue of Midwifery Today focuses on some of those trends and traditions, and sorting the good from the bad or unnecessary.
Learn what a Midwifery Today Online Membership can do for you. = Membership Article.
We know that giving neonates antibiotics can lead to later health problems, but on balance we may have to do so anyway. This article proposes an alternative to antibiotics for preventing GBS in these babies.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 82, Summer 2007. Join Midwifery Today Online MembershipEvery minute of every day, somewhere around the world, a mother dies from pregnancy or birth-related complications. Each minute, 20 children also die from mostly preventable causes. Over 30% of the childhood deaths―approximately four million babies each year―are newborns in their first 28 days of life. Many of these deaths are easily preventable by educating women about matters such as breastfeeding and nutrition and by the presence of skilled attendants at birth. The 2005 World Health Report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the 75 countries with the highest mortality rates would need 300,000 more midwives to reduce and prevent maternal and child deaths.I want to share the story of one newborn who, because midwives were available to help him, did not become one of these statistics.In the summer of 2004, my husband and I, along with our one-year-old son, moved to the northern Philippines to help establish a birth center in the rural province of Kalinga. We were serving as missionaries with Mercy In Action, an organization that trains midwives and primary health care workers and establishes birth centers in the Philippines.Women in the Philippines typically have two options for birthing their babies: the hospital, which is often understaffed and overcrowded, or at home, unattended or with a hilot, generally an older woman who has attended many births over the years but has had no formal training. Our center provided free maternity care including prenatal and postpartum care, a nutritious lunch for the moms on prenatal days, and classes on topics ranging from fetal development to birth to breastfeeding. We were available and on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for women in labor.One quiet Sunday… Read more…. Mobilizing Global Midwives: The Story of Baby Elisha
Read more…. Mobilizing Global Midwives: The Story of Baby Elisha
I was standing in the shower the day of New Year’s Eve, debating on whether I was going to make a New Year’s resolution or not. Some years I do; some years I don’t. Hmmm, what do I need to work on this year? One thing that occupies most of my time, besides family, came to mind—apprenticing. Read more…. The Challenges and Rewards of Life as an Apprentice
Yunnan Paiyao (also know as Yunnan Baiyao) is a secret formula of Chinese herbs containing mostly Pseudonginseng and Angelica. Because it is contraindicated during pregnancy, midwives often don’t include this valuable patent Chinese remedy in their medicine bags. It is easily available in Chinese Medicinal pharmacies all over the world. It also is relatively inexpensive and is packaged to give it a long shelf life.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 82, Summer 2007. Join Midwifery Today Online MembershipWhat is the ideal cesarean section rate? That rate associated with the least possible morbidity and mortality for mother/baby. This is the suggestion of Fernando Althabe of the Perinatal Research Unit, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Jose Belizan of the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in their recent article in The Lancet.(1) They acknowledge that the appropriate rate is debatable. One to five percent is a range for the minimum. Fifteen percent, as suggested by WHO (2), is a commonly accepted goal for a maximum rate. Althabe and Belizan are commenting on a study of cesarean rates in developing countries, reported in the same issue of The Lancet.(3)One way to determine whether 1% or more is really a minimum safe cesarean rate, look at three conditions that can be fatal without surgical intervention. The rates of these conditions are variable, depending on the population and other factors. Placenta previa at term occurs in about one in 200 births. However, it is more common in multipara and in older women, occurring in more than 1% of the time, even more frequently if the woman has had a previous cesarean. In primipara the rate may be one in 400 or less. Abruptio placenta occurrence varies between 0.5% and 1.5%. It is more frequent in women who have high blood pressure, smoke cigarettes, or are carrying a multiple pregnancy. Cocaine or methamphetamine use raises the rate dramatically. Finally, transverse lie in labor occurs about one time in three hundred and is more frequent in multipara, multiple births, and with prematurity. With these three conditions, we have a 1% or 2% population-wide rate of potentially necessary cesarean deliveries, without even considering disproportion, maternal medical… Read more…. Marion’s Message: Too Many or Not Enough Cesarean Sections?
Read more…. Marion’s Message: Too Many or Not Enough Cesarean Sections?
Photo by Heidi Fin
This may seem rather boring but it may be the most important article you read, so make yourself a cup of tea, sit back and read on….
Read more…. Insurance and British Midwifery: The End of Independent Midwifery in the UK?
The author encourages midwives, doulas and childbirth educators to reconsider how they are educating women and families about birth. She poses a model that encourages them to question and think, and become their own experts.
Read more…. Midwifery Model of Care—Childbirth Education: Shifting the Paradigm
Photo by Joseph Northcutt
A short, sweet birth story from Mexico.
Photo by Sergey Zolkin
In this continuing series, Sheri Menelli tells readers how to use electronic newsletters to build a clientele and inform current customers.
Read more…. Save Time and Effort and Make More Money—with Electronic Communication
Photo by Simon Wilkes
Each of us has experiences that inexorably lead to where we are, what we are doing today. The author shares with us her experience of her sister’s birth, which put her on the path to becoming a midwife.
As midwifery is poised to go mainstream, we must be very clear on our foundation: What is essential to our work, and what is momentary or temporary? In other words, what about midwifery has endured, and what must endure if we are to continue to provide what women want when they seek midwifery care? Read more…. The Enduring Qualities in Midwifery
Photo by Jonatan Lewczuk
WHO and ICM have labeled traditional midwives “traditional birth attendants” (TBA). This proposal, written for submission to these two organizations, lays out the case for calling traditional midwives midwives.
