...A variation of a massage or touch technique that might be encouraging for a laboring mother is the use of an object as a focus point. For example, the mother might choose to hold a stone in her hand to remind her that Christ is her rock and her strength. She can squeeze the stone in her hand, press it on spots of her body that could use a deeper pressure.The ways you can use the object in labor will depend on the object you choose. There is no right or wrong object to choose, it is simply something that is meaningful to the mother and will serve as an encouragement to her in labor.A common teaching in childbirth classes is that you should relax to the point that you "float" over the contractions like on water. Other teachers say you should relax so you feel as if you "melt" into the bed. I'd like to offer a different analogy for your physical relaxation: be air.The air surrounds you. It is always there, but has some properties that make it difficult to grasp. In physical relaxation for labor, you want to mimic these properties.Air is loose, so loose it fact that rays of light easily penetrate it. Walls, doors, flowers, even curtains are dense and therefore stop the light. But molecules of air are so lose the light goes right through it. Be loose like the air, let the light shine through you. Being reminded to let the light shine through you can encourage deeper relaxation and serve as an encouragement to stay focused on...
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...highly focused and knowledgeable midwife with experience of providing a high standard of care within a maternity setting. Having worked in a busy unit I feel I have the skills to cope under extreme pressure. I also feel having a positive attitude allows me to give reassurance and encouragement to low and high risk women and their families throughout pregnancy in order for them to feel safe and enjoy their pregnancy with minimal stress. Employment history Bradford Royal infirmary (Midwife) November 2010 – Present Duties and responsibilities include: * Responsible for assessing, planning and implementing Midwifery care. * Involved in the development of the maternity service. * Communicating effectively and sympathetically with mothers and relatives * Communicating and working inter professionally with other members of staff * Ensuring high standards of clinical care are maintained. * Involved in neonatal resuscitation, cannulation, IV drug administration and taking blood * Supporting the professional development of students and junior midwifery staff. * Making sure all medical equipment is safe to use and properly maintained. * Liaising with other professionals in the multidisciplinary team. * Keeping paper and computerised medical records accurate and up to date. * Acting as the mothers advocate and promoting their own health and wellbeing. * Referring clients to other practitioner’s e.g. senior midwife, obstetrician and paediatrician...
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...The word Midwife directly translates to "with woman" and this is the foundation for understanding and defining midwifery. Although a midwife’s role involves much more than just being with women today. Midwives have a unique and extensive role incorporating various responsibilities and skills that allow for high quality care, advice and support to a woman during pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period. Midwives are autonomous clinical practitioners. They care for and work in partnership with women, their families and new-borns offering empowerment and education through reflective practice which aims to give rise for an optimal pregnancy and birth outcome for the mother. This individualised care encourages women to become involved...
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...When pregnant my midwife inspired me to become a midwife. To learn more about the role and the demands and expectations of studying so I attended a university open day and taster session, taking advantage of meeting with students, tutors and midwives. I shadowed a midwife delivering antenatal classes, gaining lots of information and advice useful as a midwife and learning about the holistic approach to pregnancy. Over the past year I have built strong foundations of skills, knowledge and experiences invaluable as a midwife. Changing my career, working now as a healthcare assistant, and completing an independently secured, full time work placement within my local hospital maternity unit where I worked between the different wards. This was a fantastic opportunity to observe the midwives in their role and witness the multi-disciplinary team working together, I absorbed lots of...
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...February 2, 2014 To: Mr. William Harkey From: Natalie N. Painter Subject: Research Analysis Two articles selected for review derive from The Journal of Perinatal Education. The first article I read was titled, “Evidence Based Maternity Care: Can New Dogs Learn Old Tricks?” It was written by Merilyn Curl. Curl is a Certified Nurse Midwife, Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and a Fellow of the American College of Childbirth Educators. The article illustrates the efforts of reform applied to the founding cultures and purpose given to a modern day Certified Nurse Midwife. Assessing the Situation She begins unfolding her story at the time of hire with a concise perspective of the culture and practices of the community hospital she worked for. Curl describes the time old “Nursing Process” as assessing the situation, making a plan, then finally evaluating the outcome. She follows this same progression in her attempt to restructure nursing practices at this community hospital. She very clearly presents her personal experience as what practices (whether or not they were best practices) she was seeing in the nursing community verses research based best nursing practice. One piece of evidence she presents for this is how “This meant that labor nurses were assigned only one patient allowing the time to provide continuous labor support. Despite strong encouragement to remain at the bedside, most nurses remained tethered to the central monitoring station” (p.235). This...
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...Roles and Responsibilities of a Midwife Midwives provide advice, information, care and support for women and their babies during pregnancy, labour and the early postnatal period. They help women make their own decisions about the care and service they receive, they also make them feel comfortable and reassured through their pregnancy. They provide care for new-born children, they give health education and parenting support immediately after birth, until their care is moved to a health visitor. Midwives are responsible for the health of the mother and child and only if there are medical complications does the responsibility move to another health and social care worker. Responsibilities A midwife has many responsibilities including the care of mother and baby, adhering to hospital policy and maintaining an awareness of issues such as health and safety, other duties include: * Diagnosing, monitoring and examining women throughout their pregnancy. * Developing, assessing and evaluating individual programmes of care. * Providing full antenatal care, including screening tests in hospital, community and the home. * Identifying high risk pregnancies and making referrals to doctors and other medical specialists. * Arranging and providing parenting and health education. * Providing counselling and advice before and after screening and tests. * Offering support and advice following events such as miscarriage, termination, stillbirth, neonatal abnormality...
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...Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS 1 TITLE OF YOUR PAPER IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS 4 Title of Your Paper Here Brittany Hawkes South University Certified Nurse Midwife To become a certified nurse midwife, a student must first obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and successfully pass the NCLEX-RN examination. Secondly, the student must then earn a graduate degree in midwifery that is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME), and pass a national certification examination administered by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB) (ACNM, 2012). According to the American College of Nurse Midwives, to maintain the designation of CNM or CM, midwives must be recertified every 5 years through AMCB and must meet specific continuing education requirements (ACNM, 2012). CNMs must demonstrate that they meet the core competencies for basic midwifery practice of the ACNM (ACNM, 2008b) and must practice in accordance with the ACNM standards for the practice of midwifery (ACNM, 2011d). Core values that guide nurses in practice include advocating for patients, respecting patient and family values and informed choices,...
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...The Amish Midwife could easily be classified as a well known book, but the question is, is this a good book? After all, just because something is well known it does not mean that the reasons for its popularity are good. So, in order to answer this question a person must first look at whether or not the plot is good, and if the follow through of this plot was done well. Then it is important to determine if the main character's goal within the book makes logical sense. After considering each of these questions and the answers given it will be simple enough to make a decision based off the information given. To begin, it would be best to start off by explaining what the plot is. This story is centered around a woman named Alexandra (or Lexie...
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...to take back the work force, and women were forced back into the home. Everything had to be cookie cutter perfect, including the gender roles. In the BBC Television show, Call the Midwife, the roles for both genders have been portrayed as they were back in the 1950’s. The men were the breadwinners of their family, they were expected to work arduous hours and were not expected handle the dirty work of the household; the women were pressured into getting married early, birth many babies, and never indulge in their aspirations for a career outside of the home. The war engrained men to be the defenders of their nation. As they came home, that role spilled into their everyday lives. They became the defenders of their home and family. They strived to put food on the table and a roof over their family’s head. They were looked down on if they could not meet the needs of their family or keep them in line as seen in Episode 2 of series 3. A husband found out that his wife cheated on him after she gave birth to a black baby. His reaction was violent as her betrayal...
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...Script – one to one A midwife is talking to a newly single expectant mother about a change in her birthing plan. Sarah has recently been left by her long term partner after she discovered he was cheating on her. She is visiting the midwife to discuss the changes in her birth plan, as to whether she wants a home birth or a hospital birth. Sarah: (knocks on door) Midwife: come in. Sarah: (sitting at a 90° in close proximity) Hello. Midwife: (leaning forward, arms open) Hi! What can I help you with today? Sarah: (looking upset and down at her feet, fidgeting with fingers) I’m thinking of changing the birthing plan that we had agreed on. (lift head) Midwife: (looking confused, making eye contact and reaching out a hand and placing it on Sarah’s arm) what has happened to make you change your mind? Sarah: (turning head away and fidgeting in chair) my long term partner left me after I discovered he was cheating on me. I just don’t think that I can do the hospital birth without him. Midwife: (showing empathy on face and in voice) we will do whatever is most comfortable for you. It’s your birth at the end of the day and you are the most important. So what are you thinking now? Sarah: (sitting more upright in her chair and coughing) I think I want to do a home birth, so that I can feel more comfortable with familiar things around me. Midwife: (smiling and starting to take notes) whatever you feel most comfortable with. Are you thinking of having anyone present with you at the...
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...The ANMC Competency Standards for the Midwife (2008) value woman-centred midwifery practice and state that midwives must work in partnership with women and their families. Using the available evidence, describe how the principles of collaboration and autonomy relate to the principles of working in partnership with women. Then critically analyse how midwives apply these principles to provide woman-centred midwifery practice. As stated by the ANMC Competency Standards, midwives must work in partnership with women in order to achieve women-centred (WCC) care. The critical aspects of providing WCC involve firm performance of continuity of care and developing a strong, but professional midwife-women partnership. Through the implementation of these factors with the added strength of autonomy and collaboration WCC can be achieved to a great extent. However, within practice it is important to maintain evidence based practice and research for the best outcomes. This essay will examine how evidence based practice, partnered with the principles of autonomy and collaboration interconnect with the midwife-women partnership. WCC can be described as women and families being at the heart of everything midwives do in practice. (Fraser & Cooper, 2009). In simpler terms, it can be described as ‘working with a women in whatever way she wants’ (Pairman, 2010 pg. 327) Findings have suggested the practice of WCC increase women’s satisfaction with care. (Iida, Horiuchi, & Porter, 2011)...
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...Health across the lifespan- by Petra Goodall- 20143179 Models of care Midwifery care: Pregnancy for women is a time in which many choices have to be made. With so many options and models of care available for pregnant women in Australia, choosing can often be a difficult task. This essay aims to describe the midwifery model of care and to compare this model of care for childbearing women to other models of care, including medical models of care and shared models of care. It aims to highlight and provide information as to why midwifery led care would be the best option for child bearing women. Caseload midwifery is also explored as a specified option of midwifery led care, and benefits of this model of care are provided. Midwifery led care, or a midwifery model of care, is a model of care in which midwives are the main consultants, providing a high level of care for the women during pregnancy, labour and the post natal period. Midwives philosophy is that pregnancy and birth are normal physiological procedures in the women’s lifespan and refer to other specialists only when this differs from normal, standard pregnancies. Empathy, compassion, and consideration are some of the key components of midwives working in a midwifery model of care, though they also have a great awareness of the physiology of birth. (Dice, 2010). There are various policies for different hospitals in NSW for the model of care chosen, however the Department of Health (2014), focuses on the stages of...
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...2.1 Explain the role of the midwife in relation to other health professionals. There are many health professionals that work alongside Midwives. Each professional has their own unique skills that make them needed in this specific area. Doctors work closely with midwifes to a certain extent. Doctors are normally the first point of contact as they will confirm the pregnancy and will refer their patient to their local hospital where they will meet their midwife. As doctors are medical professional, if a midwife had a patient with a high risk pregnancy, the midwife would need to contact their doctor to have regular check-ups. A paediatrician are also another type of doctor, they are specialised in caring for babies and children. A midwife may ask for paediatrician assistance if they are concerned about any health issues related to the baby’s growth, development or any diseases that the baby may have. Midwifes may ask a social worker to help support pregnant women who have issues that are a cause of concern, for example: women suffering from domestic violence, drug abuse, live in poor conditions and young teenage mothers who may need help with housing and benefits. Social workers help give advice and guidance in areas where a midwife is not specialised in. A midwife may need an obstetrician assistance if her patient is needed to have an emergency caesarean section, has suffered with pre eclampsia and has placenta previa. Obstetrician are also another type of doctor that is...
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...such as alcohol consumption or smoking, they need to have positive attitudes towards them. That means, midwives need to be constructive and encouraging. Through beneficial and favourable interactions midwives have the potential to elaborate long term outcomes for the future mum and baby. This is true as pregnancy is recognizing to be a very teachable moment (Pairman et al.2015). Sometimes, midwives have to contact women throughout their pregnancy to gather more information or simply discuss their history or their wellbeing. To do so, this process of communication should be done via telephone or even in person as other kind of contact such as text messaging are not reliable or can be confused or misunderstand (Pairman et al. 2015). When a midwife has received all necessary information,...
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...understand and build knowledge of therapeutic communication and also how I can further develop characteristics of therapeutic communication which I see within myself already. I have selected vignette 6, consultation with the midwife in emergency to observe and reflect upon my knowledge and awareness of this subject. In particular I will be focusing on how active listening and clarifying with a patient can affect the communication. The vignette opens in the emergency department of a hospital, a young woman Sally, who has probably suffered a stroke waits with her husband for a midwife to arrive and check the health and status of her fetus as she is 28 weeks pregnant. The midwife enters and introduces herself explaining that she will be listening for the heartbeat of the baby. After establishing that the baby is alive she answers some questions David the husband has and advises she may come back to check on them later in the day. The conversation was carried out in a professional and appropriate tone. The midwife suitably introduced herself and explained to the patient what she would be doing. However after this point I felt the content and relevance of the communication was lost on the patient and her husband. In particular, the way that the midwife did not elaborate on the health of the fetus and that she failed to directly answer their questions regarding the effects the radiation from a CT scan may have on the unborn child. I think that in a situation as scary...
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