profession

The Roar Behind the Silence: book review

Soo Downe and Sheena Byrom are midwives from the UK with long and illustrious clinical careers in midwifery and also many midwifery research projects and publications to their names.

This year they published an edited collection of brief, sharply edited chapters written by 50 (count ’em) different authors.

The topic that the book deals with is the need for maternity services to be based on a philosophy of kindness and compassion: [back cover blurb]

For many years there has been growing concern about the culture of fear that is penetrating maternity services throughout the world, and that the fear felt by maternity care workers is directly and indirectly being transferred to the women and families they serve.

The consequences of fear include increased risk of defensive practice, where the childbearing woman and her family become potential enemies to those providing her care. In addition, the prevailing risk management and ‘tick box’ culture in maternity services encourages maternity workers to give priority to the records instead of the woman. These factors contribute to the dissatisfaction felt by those using and providing maternity services. There is however increasing evidence that kindness, compassion and mutual respect improve efficiency, effectiveness, experience and staff morale within healthcare settings.

The book is divided into three sections:

1. Stories and perspectives from maternity care.

2. Principles and theories.

3. Making it happen: solutions from around the world.

This is an action manual for creating change.

These are issues that are not only for the UK to be concerned with –  in Australia we have important problems to address with regard to how maternity care is provided, how women are respected within particular models of care and, of course, with regard to rising caesarean section rates and the consequences of this.

The chapters in the book are written by people as diverse as…

Kirsten Uvnäs Moberg:  a medical doctor and author of two books on the physiology of oxytocin. Her take on the impact of intervention on the action of oxytocin should make us reconsider the “safety” of many interventions which effectively block the action of the hormone.

Alison Barrett: an obstetrician who practises in New Zealand, and talks about how motherhood is not valued in western culture, “which is a nice way of saying that our culture (still) hates women” (page 63). She describes how every woman in the maternity system deserves the Best of Care. Every woman. She invites us to examine the barriers in our own minds that prevent us from providing this.

Milli Hill:  is a writer and campaigner and author of a book on water birth. She is the founder of the Positive Birth Movement – a grassroots organisation designed to promote discussion amongst women about positive birth. It emerged as an antidote to the widespread cultural fear of childbirth. As she says: “women in the PBM network consistently report that being treated and spoken to with kindness and respect is at the heart of a positive birth experience” (page 189).

Anna Byrom: is a midwifery lecturer who has used drama through Progress Theatre to explore issues through critical reflection and discussion and debate in maternity and general healthcare services. The chapter, co-written with Adele Stanley, Gemma Boyd and Kirsten Baker, outlines how their methods have enabled understanding of different participants’ experiences in healthcare settings as well as personal development – with a view to providing compassionate care.

Mavis Kirkham:  is a midwifery researcher who has written about and researched midwifery for 40 years. Her work has often focussed on the context of midwifery work and what kind of care this produces. Her chapter argues that  the NHS maternity care system is a powerful shaper of how midwifery care is delivered. We can’t ignore the impact that a system which oppresses midwives has on the way care is given.

Hannah Dahlen: is an Australian midwife researcher and practising midwife who is a professor of midwifery at Western Sydney University. Her research has covered topics such as episiotomy rates, perineal safety during birth and the impacts of place of birth and antenatal care on birth outcomes. Her chapter in the book (co-authored with Kathryn Gutteridge) looks at how the fear of midwives impacts on the experience of women during pregnancy and birth – how models of care based on risk alone take so much away from the the miracle of the
experience…and also the joy of doing midwives’ work.
roar_artwork

Maybe you don’t usually read books about midwifery?

That’s ok.

This is unlike any midwifery text I’ve read – the chapters are readable, understandable, distinctly lacking in researcher or academic jargon, and contain many stories.  They are also SHORT, concise and written in such a way that if you want to find out more about a particular person’s work or point of view, you can easily do so by looking at the reference list for each chapter or googling the organisations and publications referred to.

It is also a great way to find out the names of people who are doing interesting and stimulating work in our profession.

The other amazing thing is that at the end of each chapter there are summaries of key messages, and then a list of action points: what you can do – as a midwife.

I’m excited about this book because it has the potential to enliven and excite our profession towards change – a change that is centred on kindness and compassion for the women and families in our care.

The book is available for purchase online (for less than 20 bucks) via Amazon or Book Depository or locally through Capers: http://www.capersbookstore.com.au

Do yourself a favour.

cropped-witches1.jpg

10 things I want to tell you about midwives.

Aaah…listicles. The favourite friend of the blogger.  I’ve got some thoughts to share about midwives. Thought you oughta know.

1. Midwives are trained to care for the “normal” in pregnancy and childbirth.

“Normal”, however, is a setting on the washing machine.  Midwives actually have the skills to provide care for ALL women during pregnancy and childbirth. Sometimes this care is in collaboration with a qualified or trainee obstetrician, and sometimes other medical specialists too. Midwives can stay focused on the woman’s transition to motherhood – psychologically and emotionally, while others provide their expertise.

2. Midwives like looking after “normal” pregnancy and birth.

Often the midwife’s work is to keep pregnancy and birth normal or even take steps to bring it back to normal when things go astray. Sometimes this can be bloody hard work, especially when other forces seem to be pulling in different directions.

3. Midwives take postnatal care seriously.

It’s neither “dramatic nor technologic” but it matters. To mothers, to families and to our world. And midwives do it. No other group of professionals have the expertise or passion that midwives have to provide this care. But women have low levels of satisfaction with their postnatal care, compared to other episodes of maternity care. We don’t know why…is it the care or is it something else – like the questions we are asking…or comparing it with other episodes of maternity care?

4. Wherever midwives are recognised care providers in the world, normal birth is advocated for.

http://midwives4all.org promotes the evidence that proves midwifery care assists in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity rates and neonatal mortality rates. All women deserve midwifery care.

5. The world needs more midwives doing research into midwifery.

There is very little encouragement for midwives to do postgraduate study and learn how to do research. Consequently the research focus in many maternity hospitals is determined by medical staff.  Midwives need to be equipped to do their own research – that way they can investigate the issues that matter to them as a profession and find solutions to clinical problems that matter. Dollars and pathways are needed.

6. Midwives are revolutionary by nature.

Even when they work in institutions, midwives know they do their best work when then follow the needs of the women they care for. This means they often have to defy the needs of the institution in which they work. When midwives work outside of institutions, they are criticised for doing ‘risky’ work.

7. Midwives are often oppressed by the structures they work in.

This can be especially problematic when the policies of that institution prevent them from providing the care for women that is needed and wanted. This makes them seem rebellious at times, and difficult to manage. Sometimes they go “underground” in order to do their job.

8. Midwives gain immense satisfaction from the work they do.

This means they often put up with a lot of criticism and confrontation to keep doing their job.

9. The work of midwives has consistently been undermined by others with vested interests in their sphere of care.

These interests are invariably about the amount of money to be made by providing alternative care to that of midwives, not in providing safer or better care for women. When history is read from the point of view of hospitals and the public health service they have provided, it may appear that they were trying to protect the interests of women. Complication rates were initially very high in these institutions, however, and were patronised by women who were too poor to even give birth at home.

10. Midwives have a significant role to play in public health.

Midwives provide primary health care at a significant time in a woman’s life. They have the potential (often realised) to encourage significant health behaviour change in a woman and her family during this time (think: smoking, nutritional choices, illicit drug use, general exercise and activity levels). Midwives primarily enact these changes through their care relationships with women.

images-1