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University of California Press

Birth Models That Work

by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd (Editor), Lesley Barclay (Editor), Jan Tritten (Editor), Betty-Anne Daviss (Editor)
Paperback eBook
Price: $17.95 / £14.99
Publication Date: Apr 2009
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9780520943339
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About the Book

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.

About the Author

Robbie E. Davis-Floyd is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at University of Texas, Austin, and Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She is author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage (second edition, UC Press), among other books. Lesley Barclay is Director and Professor at the Centre for Family Health and Midwifery at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. Betty-Anne Daviss is a practicing midwife and Adjunct Professor at the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's Studies at Carleton University. Jan Tritten is founder and editor-in-chief of Midwifery Today magazine.

Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 
INTRODUCTION 
   Robbie Davis-Floyd, Lesley Barclay, Betty-Anne Daviss, and Jan Tritten 
   
PART ONE. LARGE-SCALE SYSTEMS: NATIONAL AND REGIONAL MODELS 

1. The Dutch Obstetrical System: Vanguard of the Future in Maternity Care
    Raymond De Vries, Therese A. Wiegers, Beatrijs Smulders, and Edwin van Teijlingen 
2. The New Zealand Maternity System: A Midwifery Renaissance
    Chris Hendry 
3. The Ontario Midwifery Model of Care
    Margaret E. MacDonald and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault 
4. Samoan Midwives’ Stories: Joining Social and Professional Midwives in New Models 
    of Birth
    Lesley Barclay Utumuu 
   
PART TWO. LOCAL MODELS IN DEVELOPED NATIONS: HOSPITALS AND BIRTH CENTERS

5. The Albany Midwifery Practice
    Becky Reed and Cathy Walton 
6. Small Really Is Beautiful: Tales from a Freestanding Birth Center in England
    Denis Walsh 
7. Transforming the Culture of a Maternity Service: St George Hospital, Sydney, Australia
    Pat Brodie and Caroline Homer 
8. Maternity Homes in Japan: Reservoirs of Normal Childbirth
    Etsuko Matsuoka and Fumiko Hinokuma 
9. The Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center Model, Taos, New Mexico
    Elizabeth Gilmore 
   
PART THREE. LOCAL MODELS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS: TRADITIONAL MIDWIVES, Professional
MIDWIVES AND OBSTETRICIANS WORKING TOGETHER

10. Teamwork: An Obstetrician, a Midwife, and a Doula in Brazil
     Ricardo Herbert Jones
11. The CASA Hospital and Professional Midwifery School: An Education and Practice 
     Model That Works
     Lisa Mills and Robbie Davis-Floyd 
12. Mercy in Action: Bringing Mother- and Baby-Friendly Birth Centers to the Philippines
     Vicki Penwell 
    
PART FOUR. MAKING MODELS WORK 
13. Circles of Community: The CenteringPregnancy® Group Prenatal Care Model
     Sharon Schindler Rising and Rima Jolivet 
14. Humanizing Childbirth to Reduce Maternal and Neonatal Mortality: A National 
     Effort in Brazil
     Daphne Rattner, Isa Paula Hamouche Abreu, Maria José de Oliveira Araújo, and
     Adson Roberto França Santos 
15. “Orchestrating Normal”: The Conduct of Midwifery in the United States
     Holly Powell Kennedy 
    
CONCLUSION 
   Robbie Davis-Floyd, Lesley Barclay, Betty-Anne Daviss, and Jan Tritten 
   
CONTRIBUTORS 
INDEX

Reviews

“Recommended.”
— Choice
"This book is a major contribution to the global struggle for control of women's bodies and their giving birth and should be read by all obstetricians, midwives, obstetric nurses, pregnant women and anyone else with interest in maternity care. It documents the worldwide success of programs for pregnancy and birth which honor the women and put them in control of their own reproductive lives."—Marsden Wagner, MD, author of Born In The USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First