A written birth plan encourages women to clarify desires and expectations and communicate
with their providers to make a realistic plan for care during labor. Tension between health …

One key concept in medical sociology/anthropology for the analysis of approaches to health
and illness is the medical model. However, this medical model is not only applied at the …

Birthing Autonomy brings some balance to the difficult arguments that arise from debates
about home births, and focuses on women's views and their experiences of planning home …

Background: Attitudes drive practice, perhaps more than evidence. The objective of this
study was to determine if the new generation of Canadian obstetricians has attitudes …

Despite the fact that the speciality of obstetrics is considered to be a high risk area, indeed it
is estimated that in the UK, maternity services account for massive 60% of all the NHS …

Abstract “Risky Business” considers hospital childbirth and the production of the concept of
risk in obstetrics. Risk is a defining concept of medicalized childbirth. Approaching …

This chapter is based on an in-depth qualitative study of 30 women's experiences of
planning home births in Scotland (Edwards, 2001). While that study discussed how women …

Reflecting an international trend, New Zealand women and midwives continue to work in an
environment of increasing intervention during childbirth. The midwifery role in promoting and …

The tensions of uncertainty: midwives managing risk in and of their practice. There has been
a fundamental shift in past decades in the way midwifery is enacted. The midwifery attributes …

SURTEES R. Nursing Inquiry 2010; 17: 82–92 'Everybody expects the perfect baby… and
perfect labour… and so you have to protect yourself': discourses of defence in midwifery …