Models of Maternity Care: Private Obstetrician Care

This essay demonstrates significant factors, a midwife and the women may face within Australian public hospitals. As a midwife the key skills are understanding of what supports and impacts the normal physiological process of labour and birth. This essay will discuss two influencing factors that have a negative effect on the normal progress of labour and birth. This will be seen, firstly by discussing the cultural and environmental impacts of labour and birth. Then, examining how the midwife may best support and facilitate the adverse effects of normal physiological process. This essay also discusses a positive labour and birth environment within the Australian standard model of care.

Hearing the word midwife leaves many people thinking of unprofessional, inexperienced women who help deliver babies naturally, without the help of medication. In truth, nurse-midwives are registered nurses who have attended additional schooling for women’s health and are taught to make women feel as comfortable as possible. In the beginning, remedies were the females’ legacies, their “birthright”; these females were known as “wise-women by the people, witches of charlatans by authorities”. (Ehrenreich, 1973). “Females were wanderers, traveling from one place to another, healing the sick and wounded.” (Ehrenreich 1973). These women were among the first human healers and they were especially helpful when it came to childbearing. The midwives

Within Victoria there are multiple models of maternity care available to women. An initial discussion with the woman’s treating GP during the early stages of her pregnancy is critical in her decision-making about which model of care she will choose and this key discussion is essential in allowing a woman to make the first of many informed decisions throughout her pregnancy. According to a survey conducted by Stevens et al. (2010) only 43% of women felt ‘they were not supported to maintain up-to-date knowledge on models of care, and most reported that model of care referrals were influenced by whether women had private health insurance coverage.’ Many elements of these models of care differ: from location of care, degree of caregiver continuity, rates of intervention and maternal and infant health, outcomes access to medical procedure, and philosophical orientation such as natural or medical (Stevens, Thompson, Kruske, Watson, & Miller, 2014). According to the World Health Organization (1985) and Commonwealth of Australia (2008) there is a recognition that ‘85% of pregnant women are capable of giving birth safely with minimal intervention with the remaining 15% at potential risk of medical complications’ (McIntyre & Francis, 2012).

The international Confederation of Midwives (ICM) defines the midwife as a person who has successfully completed a nationally recognized midwifery education program, is qualified for registration, and competent to practice in midwifery. As a midwifery student, I will explore the philosophies of this profession whilst working with my first continuity of care experience woman and her family. In this essay, I will examine the roles of the midwife, the scope of the practice for midwives and midwifery students, and search the value of the midwifery partnership and the importance of the woman centered care. I will also clarify the legal, professional and ethical responsibilities of the midwife in accordance with national standards and code. Analyzing

In this article, the authors explored the continuity of midwifery care using the caseload approach that was established in Queensland. This was to address the development of care for women experiencing inequalities and to improve birth outcomes. The authors objective was to investigate midwife’s responsibilities within their scope of practice when applying a caseload model (Midwifery Group Practice [MGP]).

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

Continuity of care may have different meanings, ranging from continuity of caregivers, to a shared philosophy of care by large numbers of caregivers with different professional backgrounds or ideally one-to-one care (Waldenstrom et al. 2000). The purpose of midwifery continuity of care is to allow women and their midwives to get to know each other over time. This involves not only a personal knowledge of each other, but also the ability to be able to work out, investigate, talk about and consider the complex decisions, bearing in mind the woman’s needs and expectations. The relationship has a professional purpose, which is the provision of safe and effective midwifery care (Homer, Brodie & Leap, 2008).

This assignment will evaluate the care provided to an individual woman, her baby and her family by a student midwife utilising the model of care known as case load midwifery, also known as case-loading. It will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of case loading and provide a short history of the subject. The care of the woman, baby and her family will be examined. In order to adhere to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), (2015) and to maintain confidentiality, the woman has been given the pseudonym ‘Sarah’

The Ottawa Charter emphasises the importance of global health promotion by identifying necessary conditions, sectors and resources involved in obtaining optimum community health. This is broken down into five strategies building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments for mother and child, strengthening community actions, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services (McMurray & Clendon, 2015). This essay will address optimum maternal health being ensured by the support of nurses and midwives to maintain healthy lives for both mother and child. Proceeding with a brief description of maternal health, followed by the role of the nurse/ midwife in response to the condition. This will be in relation to the five major

This report will evaluate the roles and responsibilities of a midwife. “Midwifery encompasses care of women during pregnancy, labour, and the postpartum period, as well as care of the new-born.”(WHO, 2015) This is a recent definition and clearly points out that a midwife has many roles and responsibilities. The NMC Codes of Conduct will be evaluated with specific emphasis on recent changes within healthcare. These changes took place as a result of the tragedies at Mid-Staffordshire Hospital in 2005-2009 and are the outcome of the Francis report in order to improve care given to patients.

The midwife as distinguished by Leap (2009) research of the women centred relationship and the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) (2016a) defines the midwife role as meeting “each woman’s social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural needs, expectations and context as defined by the woman herself” (para. 7). ACM position the midwife as the primary profession for quality maternity care founded during training, through the direction of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) “Code of Professional Conduct For Midwives In Australia” (CPC) and reinforced by the “Code of Ethics For Midwives In Australia” (ACM, 2015; NMBA, 2008a; 2008b). The boundaries as outlined in the NMBA “CPC” along with meeting the educational

I believe as a Midwifery Student at Australian Catholic University (ACU) that childbirth is a natural life process. Within my philosophy, my aim is to provide a women-centred care based on evidence- based practice. Also the importance of supporting women with cultural variation, social circumstance and understanding other specific needs throughout the woman’s pregnancy. The women-centred care is an essential quality to a midwife as it ensure that the women is educated in healthy lifestyle choices within pregnancy, childbirth and during parenthood. This relationship of “women-centred care” is the key to midwifery practices as Australian College of Midwives (2009) refers to the philosophy of maternity care that promotes a holistic approach by recognising each women’s social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural needs. In retrospect, it is important to reflect on your past experiences during your midwifery practice but also your life beyond midwifery.

This essay will be relating to an episode of care that was provided to a woman, her partner and their baby on day five during the postnatal period. It will examine the role of the midwife in relation to breastfeeding and how this was not achieved in the case study which is shown in the appendix. Throughout the essay it will look at the following outcomes: the role and responsibility of the midwife within current maternity care provision, the importance of sensitive midwifery, key legal and ethical dimensions of the midwife's role and key sociological and psychological agendas impacting on current maternity care.

A woman centred-approach is an endeavour for pregnant women to take ownership in their care and the midwife a guide in their

There is ample evidence that the delivery of maternity care, particularly in rural and remote areas of Canada is in crisis, largely as a result of the rapid decline and overall supply of professionals to provide this care (Druss et al., 2003; British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Centre Maternity Care Enhancement Project, 2004; Fauveau, 2008; Smith, Brown, Stewart, Trim, Freeman, Beckhoff, and Kasperski, 2009; Martin and Kasperski, 2010; Graves, 2012; McIntyre, Francis, Chapman, 2012; Meffe, Moravac, Espin, 2012; Miller, Couchie, Ehman, Graves, Grzybowski & Medves, 2012; Morgan et al., 2014). The continuing decline in the number of Canadian family physicians that provide maternity care, particularly with intra-partum care, has been highlighted in a number of articles (Price et al., 2005; Tucker et al., 2005; Peterson et al., 2007; Morgan et al., 2014). These continuing trends, in combination with the decreasing number of obstetricians being trained in intrapartum care, and number of students opting out of obstetrics to focus on gynaecology, have contributed to a general crisis in maternity care over the last decade (Price et al., 2005; Stempniak, 2016). This has given rise to possibilities of new ways of providing care to the maternal and newborn population, and inventive means for utilizing health human resources in the most productive and efficient ways (Stempniak, 2016). Collaborative practice, interprofessional education and post-licensure interprofessional