A book for pregnant women who would like to explore how best to cope with pain and fear - during their pregnancies and also during labour and birth. This book contains information about the physical and psychological functions of pain; cultural influences on the experience of labour pain; elective caesareans (are they a simpler alternative?); advantages and drawbacks of using drug-based pain relief; information and ideas on how to transform labour pain into an experience of strength and power. This book provides information on a very wide range of pain relief options, based on the author's experience of helping women and giving birth herself. Especially useful for women who want to have a straightforward natural birth, avoiding drugs during labour, if at all possible. The author is a midwife with over 30 years' experience and also a mother herself.

Pain is an evolutionary and adaptive mechanism to prevent harm to an individual. Beyond this, how it is defined, expressed, and borne is dictated culturally. Thus, the study of pain requires a holistic approach crossing cultures, disciplines, and time. This volume explores how and why pain-inducing behaviors are selected, including their potential to demonstrate individuality, navigate social hierarchies, and express commitment to an ideal. It also explores how power dynamics affect individual choice, at times requiring self-induced suffering. Taking bioanthropological and bioarchaeological approaches, this volume focuses on those who purposefully seek pain to show that, while often viewed as “exotic,” the pervasiveness of pain-inducing practices is more normative than expected. Theory and practice are employed to re-conceptualize pain as a strategic path towards achieving broader individual and societal goals. Past and present motivations for self-inflicted pain, its socio-political repercussions, and the physical manifestations of repetitive or long-term pain inducing behaviors are examined. Chapters span geographic and temporal boundaries and a wide variety of activities to illustrate how purposeful pain is used by individuals for personal expression and manipulated by political powers to maintain the status quo. This volume reveals how bioarchaeology illuminates paleopathology, how social theory enhances bioarchaeology, and how ethnography benefits from a longer temporal perspective.

This groundbreaking book takes us around the world in search of birth models that work in order to improve the standard of care for mothers and families everywhere. The contributors describe examples of maternity services from both developing countries and wealthy industrialized societies that apply the latest scientific evidence to support and facilitate normal physiological birth; deal appropriately with complications; and generate excellent birth outcomes—including psychological satisfaction for the mother. The book concludes with a description of the ideology that underlies all these working models—known internationally as the midwifery model of care.

This issue of Clinics in Perinatology will carry the reader through the perinatal period and examine pain management throughout that continuum. Beginning with the genetics of obstetrical pain and opioid use in pregnancy, the discussion moves to the provision of anesthesia to the mother and fetus during fetal surgery - an area of intense concern and interest in many centers. There is an extensive discussion of both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management of pain during delivery. A discussion of regional anesthetic techniques is increasingly relevant in light of increasing evidence of adverse neurodevelopmental consequences of fetal exposure to general anesthetics and sedatives. Pain, its implications and management, are extensively covered including discussions of how to assess neonatal pain and how best to provide sedation and non-pharmacologic pain management, systemic pharmacologic, or regional techniques. Of particular interest are the reviews of the potential neurodevelopmental impact of both the treatment and the failure to adequately treat pain in the newborn. This topic is receiving an enormous amount of attention from all those who care for children as well as government and the media.

If you only buy one pregnancy book, this should be the one! It’s the most complete. It covers all aspects of childbearing, from conception through early infancy, and tells you what to expect. It offers detailed information, suggestions on decisions to make, and advice on steps to take to have a safe and satisfying experience. The Award-Winning Resource Recommended by Experts & Loved by Parents Parents love this book because it puts them in control by explaining a wide range of options, information, and questions to ask, so parents can find what works best for their health situation, personal goals, and priorities. Experts love this book because it’s based on the latest medical research and recommendations from leading health organizations. It’s practical—rooted in the real-life experiences of new families. The five authors bring a combined total of 150 years of experience working with expectant and new families as educators, nurses, counselors, doulas, physical therapists, and lactation consultants. They have attended hundreds of births, heard thousands of birth stories, and assisted innumerable new parents in adapting to their new lives. Not only that, the authors have a combined total of 12 children and 12 grandchildren. All of this experience allows them to write with compassion, understanding, and wisdom based on what really works in the real-world of parenting. The companion website offers even more details on select subjects, including lists of all the best resources on each topic and worksheets to guide parents’ decision-making process. The website also includes a bonus chapter on pre-conception, which provides ways to improve your health and fertility before pregnancy begins.

Born in the USA examines issues including midwifery and the safety of out-of-hospital birth, how the process of becoming a doctor can adversely affect both practitioners and their patients, and why there has been a rise in the use of risky but doctor-friendly interventions, including the use of Cytotec, a drug that has not been approved by the FDA for pregnant women. Most importantly, this investigation, supported by many troubling personal stories, explores how women can reclaim the childbirth experience for the betterment of themselves and their children."--Jacket.

Edited and written by an international "who's who" of more than 100 authors, including anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, bench scientists, a surgeon, and representatives of industry, this text provides a comprehensive history of anesthesia, unique in its focus on the people and events that shaped the specialty around the world, particularly during the past 70 years when anesthesia emerged from empiricism and developed into a science-based practice.

Depression is the number one cause of maternal death in developed countries and results in adverse health outcomes for both mother and child. It is vital, therefore, that health professionals are ready and able to help those women that suffer from perinatal and postpartum depression (PPD). This book provides a comprehensive approach to treating PPD in an easy-to-use format. It reviews the research and brings together the evidence-base for understanding the causes and for assessing the different treatment options, including those that are safe for use with breastfeeding mothers. It incorporates a new psychoneuroimmunology framework for understanding postpartum depression and includes chapters on: negative birth experiences infant characteristics psychosocial factors antidepressant medication therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy herbal medicine and alternative therapies suicide and infanticide. Invaluable in treating the mothers who come to you for help, this helpful guide dispels the myths that hinder effective treatment and presents up-to-date information on the impact of maternal depression on the health of the mother, as well as the health and well-being of the infant.

First published in 1986. This book is concerned with the stressors women undergo from adolescence to old age and the resources, especially interpersonal resources, women use to cope with these stressors. There follows a series of chapters that address the use of social support as a resource for coping with stressful life events that confront women in a variety of contexts during their life span.

This new addition to our highly successful A Practical Approach to Anesthesia series is a comprehensive, accessible guide to obstetric anesthesia, with the substance and depth of a textbook and the convenient, user-friendly features of a handbook. It focuses sharply on clinical issues and is written in outline format for quick reference, with numerous tables, figures, and photographs. Major sections cover pharmacology and physiology, antepartum considerations, labor and delivery, postpartum issues, and disease states in obstetric patients, including a chapter on obesity and pregnancy. The concluding chapter reviews current guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Academy of Pediatrics.