Proactive Support of Labor: The Challenge of Normal Childbirth / Edition 2

by Paul Reuwer, Hein Bruinse, Arie Franx

Overview

The right for every woman to have a “natural” birth has been recognized for many years, yet surgical interventions continue to rise and, paradoxically, complaints and the degree of litigation for disappointing labor outcomes escalate. Proactive Support of Labor enhances professional skills by providing the expertise for preventing long labors - the root-cause of traumatic birth experiences and the cesarean pandemic. Step-by-step, evidence-based guidance on expert care and support during labor is given. Emphasis is placed on pre-labor education, personal attention, and well-defined birth planning – including strict diagnoses and timely corrective measures in abnormal labor – and constant audit of all procedures and outcomes. Striking a new balance between natural birth and intervention, and invariably enhancing women's satisfaction with the childbirth experience, the fully updated revision of this groundbreaking work will be essential reading for obstetricians, midwives, nurses, and trainees. For peer and reader reviews of the first edition see: www.proactivesupportoflabor.com

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107426580
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 9.69(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Paul Reuwer is Consultant Obstetrician-Gynecologist and Master of the Labor and Delivery Unit at St Elisabeth Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Hein Bruinse is Chairman of the Dutch National Perinatal Audit Foundation, The Netherlands.

Arie Franx is Professor of Obstetrics and Chair of the Division of Woman and Baby, University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the first edition; Preface; Dedication; Web-links; 1. General introduction; Part I. A Wake-up Call: 2. Medical excess in normal childbirth 3. Avoidable causes of failed labors; 4. Harmful birth care practices; 5. Destructive territorial disputes; 6. Self-sustaining mechanisms; Part II. Back to Basics: 7. Forgotten lessons from nature; 8. Elementary biophysics of birth; 9. Definitions and verbal precision; 10. First-stage labor revisited; 11. Second-stage labor redefined; Part III. Proactive Support of Labor: 12. Leading principles; 13. Nulliparous versus parous labor; 14. Diagnosis of labor; 15. Prevention of long labor; 16. Personal attention and support; 17. Amniotomy and oxytocin; 18. Pre-labor preparation; 19. Affective dimensions of labor pain; 20. Pain relief re-examined; 21. Dynamic dystocia unraveled; 22. Obstructed labor; 23. Curtailed use of induction; 24. Safe care of the fetus; 25. Organizational reforms; 26 Implementation and ongoing audit cycle; 27. External audit of procedures and outcomes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is worthwhile reading for everybody involved in birth care, especially for junior staff with limited obstetric training … It is a good teaching resource in developing countries and provides a good starting point for cooperation between primary and secondary care providers."
Arie C. Glas, Bulletin of the Netherlands Society for Tropical Medicine and International Health

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Robin Webb Corbett, PhD, RN C(East Carolina University)
Description: This book encourages the healthcare team — physicians, nurse midwives, and nurses — to reexamine our labor and delivery practices, with a view toward making laboring patient care less technologically based and more evidence based.
Purpose: The purpose is to present a "cohesive, evidence-based plan" for the care of the normal, healthy laboring woman, promoting a team approach to the delivery of care to "promote spontaneous delivery" and to "enhance women's satisfaction" with their childbirth experience. These are worthy objectives and this book will encourage dialogue.
Audience: It is written for healthcare providers and students who care for the normal laboring woman. It is also intended for lay readers interested in supportive labor. While most appropriate for healthcare providers and students, the book would be beneficial for laypeople who are familiar with the terminology. The authors are clinicians in obstetrics, advanced maternal-fetal medicine, and midwifery in the Netherlands.
Features: The book presents evidence-based guidelines reviewing pain relief, fetal and maternal monitoring, and the prevention of intrapartal complications. The emphasis is on promoting the body's natural laboring process to enhance the mother's satisfaction with the childbirth experience. Evidence-based care is reviewed and discussed. As a reviewer states, this book provides a good counterbalance to our present state of interventional intrapartal care.
Assessment: This will promote dialogue and discussion among healthcare providers caring for intrapartal families. It suggests a new look at the evidence in our delivery of care to promote a more natural delivery with less technological intervention by providers. It also emphasizes a team approach to the delivery of care. Inclusion of these aspects of care will increase the new family's satisfaction with the childbirth experience.

Doody's Review Service