For thousands of years women have given birth among people they know in a place they know well. Knowledge is shared and birth is a social event. In northern industrial societies today, when a women gets pregnant she may be presented with various options. Yet if it is her first baby she has only the vaguest idea of how birth feels and how other women cope. Birth is set apart from the rest of women's lives and accepted as a matter of specialist knowledge. To discuss birth only in terms of ou...

Everything the expectant mother needs to know about childbirth, from one of the foremost experts in the field.Childbirth is one of the most important and powerful events in a woman's life - and yet many women look back on it as an ordeal. Sheila Kitzinger, acknowledged around the world as an expert in the psychological, social and physiological aspects of birth, has rewritten her first book for today's women.Herself a mother of five, all born at home, she b...

One new mother in twenty is diagnosed with traumatic stress after childbirth. In Birth Crisis Sheila Kitzinger explores the disempowerment and anxiety experienced by these women. Key topics discussed include:increasing intervention in pregnancythe shift in emphasis from relationships to technology in childbirthhow family, friends and professional caregivers can reach out to traumatized mothershow women can work through stress to understa...

Birth statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that more women than ever before become mothers later in life. The trend is also backed up by figures from other countries around the world. In developed countries there is an upsurge in the age of mothers giving birth for the first time, and in the UK alone there are now more first-time mothers giving birth in the 30-34 age group than in the 25-29 age group. There is also a 50% increase from 10 years ago in the number of women ...

This title includes Foreword by Sheila Kitzinger, Writer, Researcher, Activist and Honorary Professor, Wolfson School of Health Sciences, Thames Valley University. Birth centres are suitable for every woman whose birth is straightforward, which accounts for around 75 per cent of all women. This inspirational guide shows how small scale maternity provision has a profound clinical and organisational advantage over large scale hospital provision, including saving of time and money by reducing...

MORE THAN 500,000 COPIES SOLD! • In this completely revised and updated edition, the nation’s leading midwife shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience.“This book should be read by every woman who is having or may someday have a baby, and by every midwife, nurse, doula, childbirth educator, and doctor who assists or may someday assis...

Is the experience of childbirth becoming 'globalised'?Is the encroachment of the western medical model dehumanising a profoundly human experience?If so, what can midwives and midwife educators do about it?These are the questions at the heart of Childbirth in the Global Village which highlights the role that globalisation plays in changing childbirth practices and its implications for midwifery practice and education.Built around the vivid personal stor...

'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers – frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalized surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives.Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breas...

As featured on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 5 Live Selected as one of the Independent’s 10 best pregnancy books for expectant parentsBirth is a feminist issue. It’s the feminist issue nobody’s talking about.For too long women have been told, ‘a healthy baby is all that matters’. This book dares to say women matter too.Finally blasting the feminist spotlight into the labour ward, Milli Hill enc...

The evidence surrounding the skills and approaches to support good birth has grown exponentially over the last two decades, but so too have the obstacles facing women and midwives who strive to achieve good birth.This new book critically explores the complex issues surrounding contemporary childbirth practices in a climate which is ever more medicalised amidst greater insecurity at broad social and political levels. The authors offer a rigorous, and thought-provoking, analysis of c...

Leadership, expertise, and collaborative working are fundamental aspects of efficient and effective healthcare. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the general theories, principles and points of good practice in each of these three areas. This general literature is then contextualised by theoretical and practical implications for maternity care, and illustrated with in-depth case studies of successful innovation and change in practice.Essential reading for all midwives, mi...