Psychology For Midwives

This accessible, evidence-based book explores how important it is for midwives to understand the psychological aspects of care, in order to create positive experiences for mothers and families.

Divided into two sections, this text concentrates firstly upon aspects of psychology that are relevant for the professional and personal development of the midwife, and then secondly upon the mother and baby and this part of the life cycle.

This accessible, evidence-based book explores how important it is for midwives to understand the psychological aspects of care, in order to create positive experiences for mothers and families. The book provides simple explanations for why psychological care matters in midwifery practice and uses different theoretical perspectives of psychology to illustrate how it fundamentally contributes to good midwifery practice. The book addresses many core concepts and principles of psychology, including: Mother-midwife relationship Emotions during the childbearing continuum Perinatal mental illness Communications in midwifery practice The birth environment Stress and anxiety Providing support to families Attachment and bonding Reflective questions, activities, illustrations, tables, summary boxes and a glossary help readers navigate the book.Psychology for Midwives is essential reading for all midwives, students and allied health care professionals interested in the psychological dimensions of childbearing.

This book about the art, craft and science of expert midwifery care, while focusing on ‘alternative physiological births’ that are those ‘outside’ of guidelines, the contents can be applied to any birthing choices. Drawing upon the findings of a PhD that captured the experiences of midwives who proactively supported alternative physiological births while working in the National Health Service, their practice was conceptualised as ‘skilled heartfelt practice’. Skilled heartfelt practice denotes the interrelationship between midwives’ attitudes and beliefs in support of women’s choices, their values of cultivating meaningful relationships, and their expert practical clinical skills. It is these qualities combined that give rise to what is called ‘full-scope midwifery’ as defined by the Lancet Midwifery Series. This book illuminates why and how these midwives facilitated safe, relational care. Using a combination of emotional intelligence skills and clinical expertise while centring women’s bodily autonomy, they ensured safe care was provided within a holistic framework. Moreover, this book offers insights for midwives to move beyond ‘rule-based’ practice, where the benefits of expert practice are illuminated. Midwives facilitating ‘alternative’ physiological births epitomise evidence-based practice, which centres the woman or birthing person as the expert in their life, and the midwife meets them where they are with expert skills to support them. But what does this look like in clinical practice, particularly for those employed by institutions, those ‘working within the system’ who have constraints that private or self-employed midwives don’t have? How does a midwife cultivate those skills within a culture and climate that devalues both relationships, midwives and women’s autonomy? This book aims to provide a roadmap for those seeking to cultivate these skills. The core focus will be the midwife-mother relationship from the perspectives of the midwives, rather than the midwives wider working relationships or workplace contexts. This is purposeful so to offer a deep dive into the nuanced and varied ways of delivering this type of care. However, the realities of practice are also firmly embedded with the book, tensions will be explored, limitations acknowledged.

A consideration of the role of the midwife in childbirth, which currently stands at the point of divergence between two differing philosophies of childbearing. In one, pregnancy and birth belong to the medical profession, in the other it is a part of the experience of ordinary life.

Introducing the Social Sciences for Midwifery Practice makes clear the links between social, anthropological and psychological concepts, midwifery practice and women’s experience of birth. Demonstrating how empathising with women and understanding the context in which they live can affect childbirth outcomes and experiences, this evidence-based text emphasises the importance of compassionate and humane care in midwifery practice. Exploring midwifery as an art, as well as a science, the authors collected here make the case for midwives as professionals working ‘with women’ rather than as birth technicians, taking a purely competency-based approach to practice. The book incorporates a range of pedagogical features to enhance student learning, including overall chapter aims and learning outcomes, ‘recommendations for practice’, ‘learning triggers’ to encourage the reader to delve deeper and reflect on practice, ‘application to practice’ case studies which ensure that the theory is related to contemporary practice, and a glossary of terms. The chapters cover perspectives on birth from sociology; psychology; anthropology; law; social policy and politics. Other chapters address important issues such as disability, politics and sexuality. Outlining relevant theory from the social sciences and clearly applying it to practice, this text is an essential read for all student midwives, registered midwives and doulas.