This essay explores the partnership relationship between a midwife and the woman she is caring for within the context of law and ethics and relating to decision-making. The midwife-woman partnership can create an environment in which the woman can become empowered and her confidence as a woman and mother can be strengthened. Empowering women in healthcare provision enhances the woman’s ability to make informed decisions for herself and her family. Issues of law and ethics, such as the right to autonomy and informed decision-making and the right to consent to or refuse the provision of midwifery care will be highlighted along with how midwifery practice is influenced by regulatory boards and common law. The importance of evidence-based practice and practicing within one’s scope will also be discussed. The strategy used to locate resources while researching the topics in this essay included searching Google Scholar and all databases available via CQUniversity library’s DISCOVER IT! search facility, utilising the provided weekly readings, pdfs, websites and textbook and sourcing articles and reports mentioned and referenced by authors of informative articles already sourced. Searches were restricted to scholarly journals published between 2009 and 2014. Search terms included a combination of the following words and terms: partnership, midwi* (truncated to search from midwife, midwifery, midwives), decision-making, educating women, informed decision-making, ethics, law, childbirth education, promoting autonomy, promoting informed decision making. One of the fundamental principles of midwifery is the relationship that is developed and nurtured between a midwife and the woman she is caring for (Guilliland & Pairman, 2010; Kirkman,... ... middle of paper ... ...rovides all midwives employed within Australia with a point of reference when making decisions within a professional context (Anderson & Pelvin, 2010). For example, Value statement 5 states that midwives value a woman’s legal and ethical right to informed decision-making and autonomy during pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenthood (NMBA, 2008a). In light of this value statement, all pregnant women have the right to make autonomous decisions regarding their maternity care (Kruske et al., 2013) and should not be coerced into making decisions (Anderson & Pelvin, 2010). The concept of autonomy shifts the locus of decision-making in maternity care from the health care provider to the woman herself (Anderson & Pelvin, 2010) and in demonstrating autonomy, the woman also takes responsibility for the consequences of her choice (Bones, 2006 cited in Thompson, 2013).
Breckinridge analyzed this information, and developed a plan to help lower maternal mortality rates and improve health care for pregnant and nursing mothers as well as adequate nursing practice. She returned to London, to finish her education at The British Hospital for Mothers and Babies where she became certified as an English Mid-wife (Bullough, V.L.). “She then visited Scotland to observe the work of a community midwifery system serving poor, rural areas; its decentralized structure served as a model for the Frontier Nursing Service (Gina
Pairman,S., Tracy, S., Thorogood, C., & Pincombe, J. (2013). Theoretical frameworks for midwifery practice. Midwifery: Preparation for practice.(2nd ed, pp. 313-336). Chatswood, N.S.W. : Elsevier Australia
We are here faced with the polar opposite extremes in birthing. Seemingly, if a woman has too little prenatal care and education regarding birthing (as in Africa) she may not have the access to a Cesarean when she truly needs it; and at the other end of the spectrum if a woman has enveloped herself in a system that relies too heavily on birthing technologies she may end up with an unnecessary Cesarean surgery. Other paradigms exist for birthing such as in Holland where every woman is provided with a midwife for her birth, and Brazil where the C-section rate tops 80 percent. Yet another microcosmic pocket of birth in the U.S. shows us that C-section rates can be achieved at below 2%.
Midwives, herbalists, and masseuses performed most abortions. Therefore, most of these people were convicted. Most women supported other abortionists, but in some cases women would accuse others of aborting or attempting to abort. McLaren argues that abortions came only to the attention of authorities when something went wrong. This supports her feelings that women’s well-being was jeopardized around this particular time, especially poor, or single women. For example, single, or poor women were reported more often than private patients by hospital staff. McLaren also mentions that women were not given the opportunity to abort properly by professionals and therefore conducted their own operations, or visit a midwife, or herbalists.
...o find a balance between interventional and non-interventional birth. With this being said, I also understand that there are strict policies and protocols set in place, which I must abide to as a healthcare provider, in any birth setting. Unfortunately, these guidelines can be abused. Christiane Northrup, MD, a well recognized and respected obstetrician-gynecologist has gone as far as to tell her own daughters that they should not give birth in a hospital setting, with the safest place being home (Block, 2007, p. xxiii). Although I am not entirely against hospital births, I am a firm believe that normal, healthy pregnancies should be fully permissible to all midwives. However, high-risk pregnancies and births must remain the responsibility of skilled obstetricians. My heart’s desire is to do what is ultimately in the best interest of the mother, and her unborn child.
The term "reproductive rights" has become synonymous with abortion rights, birth control access, and issues surrounding reproductive technologies, yet the struggle for a woman's right to choose when and how to become pregnant often overshadows a woman's right to choose where and how to give birth. The lack of feminist discourse and activism surrounding issues of childbirth may attest to the hegemony in the modern American birth ritual of increasing medical intervention from obstetricians in hospital settings. There are currently several movements to challenge this dominant birth model--prepared childbirth advocates offer education classes and natural childbirth advocates lobby for the rights of midwives and home births--but I refrain from giving either of these movements a feminist label because neither are invested in challenging prevailing gender ideology or the equation of woman with motherhood. This paper will argue that a feminist discourse of childbirth is necessary by using a Foucauldian analysis to chart the current web of power and knowledge in the American hospital delivery room and how it works to deny agency to women in labor, alienating them from their experience. Recognizing that power and knowledge operate on a myriad of levels and tactics, including counter-tactics, I will not limit my focus to the dominant discourse of medical experts, but also explore what I call counter discourses of childbirth, particularly from the prepared childbirth and natural childbirth advocates. Within this discussion, I hope to offer suggestions on a feminist ethic of childbirth that reaffirms women's autonomy during labor, but does not limit them to prevailing codes o...
In the early nineteen-hundreds, the American Medical Lobby was almost successful in stopping out its competition: Midwives. The Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA) published an article in 1912 “The Midwife Problem”, which analyzed a survey given to obstetricians of their thoughts on midwives were. The article states “a large proportion admit that the average practitioner, through his lack of preparation for the practice of obstetrics, may do his patients as much harm as the much-maligned midwife.” This statement demonstrates the discrimination of skilled midwives. Comparing a trained midwife to a unprepared obstetrician. “doctors are the main reason women don’t have midwives.” says Cristen Pascucci the Author of “ Why Are We Asking Doctors if Women Should Have Midwives?”. Midwife led care is the norm all around the world for mothers and babies, so why not in the United States you may ask. Many may say that the United States has a dysfunctional system of maternity care, leading to poor outcomes for mothers and babies. After the 1912 “Midwife Problem”, prenatal mortality has been higher in hospitals and lower in at home births. (Pascucci, 2014) The doctors employed by the AMA in 1912, failed to take down the glorious, strong willed midwives. Even after 100 years of scrutiny, midwives are still going strong and proving their ways of doing things are
The initial search covered the period from 1993 and used the keywords ‘midwi*’, ‘nurse-midwi*’ and ‘good’. At home births are planned during the prenatal course when women have met the criteria for low risk pregnancy. In the Netherlands, midwifery is a standard form of care, approximately 35% of all babies are born at home with midwives. In the United States, less than 1% of births are done at home, researchers suggest that practitioners’ attitudes, resource availability, and community standards may influence the birth site options offered to women in the United States.
Abortion is a procedure carried out to terminate a pregnancy. In 1967, liberal Member of Parliament David Steel introduced the Abortion Act. This legally permitted abortion to be carried out by a medical practitioner in England, Scotland and Wales (Glennerster 2000). Since the implementation of this policy, numbers of abortion have gradually increased. In 2010 almost two hundred thousand procedures were carried out in England and Wales, ninety-six per cent of which were funded by the National Health Service (Department of Health 2011). To access the strengths and weaknesses of abortion regulation a number of areas must be considered. Following a brief section about the background and development of abortion policy, the legal requirement of two doctor consent will be discussed. Repercussions of this legality will be used to justify why the requirement is considered an outdated obligation that weakens abortion regulation. The extent of abortion provision will then be argued as a weakness by sending a troubling message to society. This will interconnect with the need for restrictions in abortion provision, a concept supported by the further discussion of related health risks. Counterarguments will then consider the procedure step by step and suggest that regulations enable a process efficient and suitable for both the hospital and patient. Finally, medicalisation will be discussed as the most prominent strength of the British approach to abortion in regards to safety.
The Business of Being Born is a documentary film produced by Ricki Lake that studies the contemporary experience of childbirth in the United States. The film explores the various childbirth methods such as midwives, natural birth, Cesarean section, and Hospital birth that include medication such as Epidurals and Pitocin. Analyzing the various childbirth methods allows people to become aware of the pros and cons of each method. It also brings attention to the decrease of natural birth and babies’ delivery by midwives in the United States. In the United States Midwives attend less than 8% of birth compare to 70% in Europe and Spain. Another issues regard this difference is countries that have a high percent of Midwives birth is they lose fewer women and babies compare to the United
Patel seems to want to control and limit Mary Guzman’s ability to give birth in order to provide what he considers the safest treatment. Mary should have every right to keep her uterus even if the complications of keeping it outweigh the complications of a hysterectomy. Thus through a feminist theory, Dr. Patel can see Mary’s autonomous decision to keep her uterus as valid in this context, and he should not try to convince his patient to have a hysterectomy. This is important because a doctor’s words can have a huge impact on a patient’s decision which can limit the patient’s autonomy. To illustrate, a study questioning 104 women before they had a hysterectomy stated that “Women's perceptions of the decision-making process, including the way their doctors communicated with them, did impinge on their views of the course of action selected.
“Almost half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended [and of those pregnancies about] 1.3 billion each year, are ended by abortion.” (Dudley). Most women that receive an abortion are clueless of the type of health risk that are associated with the abortion. According to the American Nurses Associated, “Patients have the moral and legal right to determine what [would] be done with their own person; to be given accurate, complete and understandable information in a manner that facilitates and informed judgement” (Barnes) Meaning, before given treatment the patient must be informed of some of the risks that are involved. They should be given all of the facts related to their situation in order to make an informed decision. Informing the patient of the risks associated with the procedure is done before every operation, or most operations. Women who have abortions are not informed of...
In the second article Julie Cantor and Ken Baum explains that individual right and public health boundaries remain unclear and want to offer a balance solution for this complex problem. The conclude that no the pharmacist should not reject and or reject the dispensing of the drugs due to the have an obligation to meet the needs of their customers by referring them elsewhere. They argue in this article “The Limits of Conscientious Objection- May Pharmacists Refuse to Fill Prescriptions for Emergency Contraception?” regarding pharmacists as professional and with their code of ethics that is seems inappropriate to question their right. However, even the courts have agreed that pharmacists have a duty of care. Professionals are expected to place the interests of their clients above their own immediate needs. They believe that a pharmacist understand their fiduciary obligations when they choose their profession (Baum, 2004). Next they argue that emergency contraception is not an abortifacient. They next objecting medications can affect a patient’s health and even place a heavy burden on a person who has no means for another option. Refusal has potential for abuse and discrimination. Final argument is if refusal is the choice then it is unacceptable to leave a patient to fend for themselves. The offer the solution of may have the right to object but, not to
Bergman, J., & Bergman, N. (2013). Whose choice? Advocating birthing practices according to baby's biological needs. Journal of Perinatal Education, 22(1), 8-13. doi:10.1891/1058-1243.22.1.8
I have used the recommended reading list in the course handbook to write this essay, yet it has taken me several pages and numerous edits to produce this final script. In order to avoid confusion in style, I consulted mainly two books but paid particular attention to Gimenez J (2007) Writing for nursing and midwifery students Palgrave.