Birth Matters

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Louise Marie Roth
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Normal Pregnancy ◽  
Authoritative Knowledge ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Developed Nations ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

This chapter outlines the medical and midwifery models of childbirth. In most developed nations, the medical model of childbirth dominates maternity care and obstetricians have authoritative knowledge. This chapter defines the medicalization schema as a deep, largely unconscious conceptual framework that organizes beliefs about pregnancy and birth. The medicalization schema contains three key components: the pathologization of normal pregnancy and childbirth, scienciness, and technology fetishism. This chapter defines the concepts of scienciness and technology fetishism with respect to common obstetric practices and technologies that lack the support of scientific evidence. Lackluster public health results and critiques from women’s health movements challenge the validity of medicalization.

scholarly journals ‘The System is Not Set up for the Benefit of Women’: Women’s Experiences of Decision-Making During Pregnancy and Birth in Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110554
Author(s):  
Susann Huschke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Informed Choice ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Authoritative Knowledge ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

In this article, I draw on in-depth qualitative interviews with 23 women, conducted in 2019/2020, focusing on their involvement in decision-making during pregnancy and birth. The study is located in Ireland, where comparably progressive national policies regarding informed choice in labour and birth clash with the day-to-day reality of a heavily medicalised, paternalistic maternity care system. I represent the subjective experiences of a diverse group of women through in-depth interview excerpts. In my analysis, I move beyond describing what is happening in the Irish maternity system to discussing why this is happening – relating the findings of the research to the international literature on authoritative knowledge, technocratic hospital cultures and risk-based discourses around birth. In the last section of the article, I offer concrete, empirically grounded and innovative recommendations how to enhance women’s involvement in decision-making.

scholarly journals Risk, Safety, and Choice in Childbirth

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Lothian
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Managing Risk ◽  
Free Women ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth ◽  
In Pregnancy

In this column, the author explores current understandings of risk and safety in pregnancy and childbirth. An emphasis on risk management places the provider and hospital in control of women’s decisions related to pregnancy and birth and may make pregnancy and birth less safe for mothers and babies. Accepting that no life is risk free, women can let go of fear and make choices that take into account real, not imagined, or exaggerated risk and, in doing so, increase safety for themselves and their babies. The focus of maternity care becomes enhancing safety through evidence-based practice rather than managing risk.

scholarly journals Models of maternity care: a continuity of midwifery care

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2666
Author(s):  
Suman Choudhary ◽  
Prasuna Jelly ◽  
Prakash Mahala
Keyword(s):  
Maternity Care ◽  
Postnatal Period ◽  
Midwifery Care ◽  
Medical Interventions ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
Significant Life ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Satisfaction Rates ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

Pregnancy and birth are significant life events for women and their families and midwife supports a woman throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. So, the demand for services that are family friendly, women focused, safe and accessible is increasing. Evidence has shown that midwifery care is associated with lower cost, higher satisfaction rates among women, and less intervention. Because pregnancy and childbirth involve every part of feelings, physical and practical needs, hopes, religious and spiritual beliefs can all affect pregnancy and birth. So, model of maternity care addresses all these aspects to help give birth safely, naturally and confidently. The aim of this review is how midwives working in different model care constructed their midwifery role in order to maintain a positive work-life balance. Evidence from high income countries found such models to be a cost-efficient way to improve health outcomes, reducing medical interventions and increasing satisfaction with care.

Maternal Health and Care in India: Why a Major Public Health Strategy Is Essential

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-97
Author(s):  
Andy Beckingham
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Maternal Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Public Health Strategy ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Health Strategy

India has large inequalities in maternal health and high maternal mortality and morbidity rates. A social model of maternal health was used as a framework for a broad review of online published literature to appraise the approaches used by India to address these issues and to examine the potential for reducing the country’s maternal health inequalities.The review found the following:• An apparent lack of coordinated economic, social, and health strategy and policies focused on improving maternal health• No acknowledgment in national health policy of the limitations of the medical model of maternal health and little apparent mention of the social model• No evident national frameworks for quality assurance in maternity care• Lack of recognition of the importance of woman-centered care• No evident comprehensive maternal health needs assessment to underpin coordinated multisector working• An apparent lack of reliable national data collection for setting inequality targets and monitoring progress• No apparent performance-focused management system for improving maternity care nationally.Although India has made large increases in maternal health care provision over recent decades, a pragmatic review of government policies, the reports of international agencies, and the findings of published research studies indicate that major barriers exist to reducing maternal health inequalities and to achieving good quality care for disadvantaged women. The main barrier appears to be the widespread use at all levels, including government, of the medical model of maternal health, which focuses mostly on obstetric interventions and fails to address the wider economic and social determinants of maternal health or to use a woman-centered approach to maternity care.We recommend that Indian governments adopt instead a “social model” approach to maternal health improvement and urgently employ a public health strategy led by a national multisector task force to reduce inequalities in maternal health.

Public Health and Primary Care Collaboration: An Evolving Conceptual Framework

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruta Valaitis ◽  
Marjorie MacDonald ◽  
Sabrina Wong ◽  
Linda O'Mara ◽  
Donna Meagher-Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Conceptual Framework

Japanese-language videos on YouTube as a source of public health information for COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeo Yasu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The State ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Spread Of Infection

BACKGROUND Serious public health problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can cause an infodemic. Sources of information that may cause an infodemic include social networking services; YouTube, which consists of content created and uploaded by individuals, is one such source. OBJECTIVE To survey the content and changes in YouTube videos that present public health information about COVID-19 in Japan. METHODS We surveyed YouTube content regarding public health information pertaining to COVID-19 in Japan. YouTube searches were performed on March 6, 2020 (before the state of emergency), April 14 (during the state of emergency), and May 27 (after the state of emergency was lifted), with 136, 113, and 140 sample videos evaluated, respectively. The main outcome measures were: (1) The total number of views for each video, (2) video content, and (3) the usefulness of the video. RESULTS In the 100 most viewed YouTube videos during the three periods, the number of videos on public health information in March was significantly higher than in May (p = .02). Of the 331 unique videos, 9.1% (n = 30) were released by healthcare professionals. Useful videos providing public health information about the prevention of the spread of infection comprised only 13.0% of the sample but were viewed significantly more often than not useful videos (p = .006). CONCLUSIONS Individuals need to take care when obtaining information from YouTube before or early in a pandemic, during which time scientific evidence is scarce.

scholarly journals Public health decisions in the COVID-19 pandemic require more than ‘follow the science’

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-107134
Author(s):  
Thana Cristina de Campos-Rudinsky ◽  
Eduardo Undurraga
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
Good Decision

Although empirical evidence may provide a much desired sense of certainty amidst a pandemic characterised by uncertainty, the vast gamut of available COVID-19 data, including misinformation, has instead increased confusion and distrust in authorities’ decisions. One key lesson we have been gradually learning from the COVID-19 pandemic is that the availability of empirical data and scientific evidence alone do not automatically lead to good decisions. Good decision-making in public health policy, this paper argues, does depend on the availability of reliable data and rigorous analyses, but depends above all on sound ethical reasoning that ascribes value and normative judgement to empirical facts.

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