Midwife In Australia

The research topic has clear value to the discipline of Midwifery and more specifically to health professionals providing maternity care to Aboriginal Australian childbearing women. It is a national priority to address and solve health issues that contribute to closing the gap between Aboriginal childbearing women and their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

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]).

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.

Women living in rural and remote areas of Australia have less convenient access to maternity care than women living in regional and urban areas of Australia. These women, the majority of whom identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, often have to travel to the nearest regional hospital to give birth. Unfortunately, for the majority of these women the closest regional hospital is hundreds of kilometers from their own community and they must make this trip without the accompaniment of a support person. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the above statement in further detail. Current inequalities in maternity care for women living in rural and remote areas will be discussed. An explanation will be given as to why the current model of care is inadequate and culturally unsafe. It will be recommended that a model of care which incorporates continuity of carer and birthing on country be implemented in rural and remote areas to provide a safer birthing environment and improve maternal and community satisfaction. The case load model of care will be viewed favorably as it can be adapted to each individual community and has been accredited with improving health outcomes for women and infants. Finally, midwives who work in rural and remote locations often struggle to gain the requirements necessary for midwifery registration due to limited exposure to the maternity setting compared with their regional and urban counterparts, therefore, recommendations will be made to

Eagerly yearning to have a positive impact on health standards in my community has compelled me towards studying Midwifery. I believe there’s nothing more remarkable than understanding how a woman’s body functions during their pregnancy. Broadening my horizon and developing my understanding about how midwives specialise in nurturing a pregnant woman and her baby from early postnatal periods, pregnancy and birth. However what intrigues me the most is having the privilege of forming a relationship with mother whilst being pregnant. Another appeal is that midwives are essential in preparing women for motherhood by providing around the clock support and educating both parents and family, to help them make informed decisions about their new-born

In developing midwifery skills, it can be concluded that drawing on evidence that includes legislation and regulations in relation to new mothers is an important part of professional development. This will enable the process of individualised patient education and will help new mothers make informed decisions. Subsequently, improving communication skills by applying the principles of active listening and collecting information that is necessary for addressing the needs of new mothers is also necessary as a means of possessing the necessary materials for educating clients so that they can make the right choice for themselves and for their families.

The theory I selected to apply to the above situation is the Birth Territory theory. This theory was created from empirical data collected by the authors who serve as both midwives and researchers. It has a critical post-structural feminist undertone and elaborates on the ideas of Michel Foucault. The Birth Territory theory predicts and elaborates on the relationships between jurisdiction (use of authority and influence), terrain (the birthing environment), and personal emotional and physiological experience by the mother. This nurse-midwifery theory was chosen because both of the major concepts directly correlate with the incident and are critical aspects of labor and delivery situations. MAYBE ELABORATE A diagram of the Birth Territory theory can be seen in Appendix A.

Childbirth, also known as labor and delivery, is ending of pregnancy by one or more babies leaving a women uterus. It is a life changing event in which a woman goes through a lot of biological, social and emotional transitions(1). During facility-based childbirth giving compassionate, and respectful maternity care can profoundly affect the future well-being of the mother and new born, and her relationship with the baby, family and health professionals (2).

Women’s birth experiences can be affected by their expectations. These expectations are for the most part dynamic and complicated as they are subject to factors of environment, culture, systems and beliefs. Generally, childbearing is majorly a biological phenomenon, however, the experience of childbirth is also socially constructed (Liamputtong, Yimyam, Parisunyakul, Baosoung, & Sansiriphun, 2005) as it occurs within a defined cultural practice and is shaped by perceptions, norms and expectations (Lefkarites, 1992; Steinberg, 1996; Liamputtong, 2000a, b). Ayers and Pickering (2005), highlighted the very importance of expectations as a health behaviour and the impact on the experience of mental health issues.

The article, Childbirth Experiences in Australia of Women Born in Turkey, Vietnam, and Australia, was written in order to examine the experiences of childbirth focusing chiefly on the recollection of agony and how it was dealt with (pain relief). The study conducted was to investigate how women from different cultural groups experience giving birth in a large city hospital in Australia. The reason why it was conducted in a metropolitan hospital in Australia is primarily because of migrant women constitute a growing proportion of the childbearing population in many high-income countries hence having the study conducted in Australia. The other reason why this study was conducted was also because approximately 17% women giving birth in Australia were born in non- English speaking countries. That fact is important because these women come from different childbirth practices, and hospital staff in the new country might not be aware of the way these women views and expectations. What set this study apart was the fact that most of the studies did explore migrant women giving birth in a new country but explored this using qualitative methods while as this study used quantitative methods. What is usually found from these studies is that many of the traditional child birthing practices are diminishing or completely abandoned in a new country. Furthermore, language barrier, difficulty in communication and lack of individualized care aid in the diminishing of child birthing practices.

There are many dimensions to the midwives role within society. This essay will explore the antenatal care provided by a student midwife and a community midwife to a woman called Jane. Her name has been changed in order to protect her confidentiality. This essay will describe the role and responsibility of the midwife within the current maternity care provision. It will explore consent and documentation as well as the impact of key sociological and psychological agendas, while recognising the importance of sensitive midwifery care and supporting woman as individuals.

The midwife’s role is also to enhance the mother 's normal physiology during third stage and to protect the birth process holistically. In this scenario this meant that the midwife enhanced Laura 's oxytocin production. McDonald (2009) explains that oxytocin- a hormone produced mainly in the posterior pituitary gland (Murray and Hassall, 2009) - has mechanical effects on the myometrium and the myoepithelial cells of the breast, resulting in uterine contractions and ejection of breast milk.

Some women experience birth as a very sacred, spiritual, deeply healing, and transforming experience in their life; while some women experience birth as traumatic. Still, other women do not experience birth with any spiritual or emotional significance. There are many reasons for these various experiences, which have been covered extensively in other studies and articles. Some of those reasons are personal beliefs about birth held by the woman due to religious and cultural influences, and any personal experiences surrounding birth; the woman’s support system during birth, and the trust that the birthing woman and that of her birth team have in a woman’s body to birth, baby to know how to be born, and the birth process itself (Hatsun 2007). Women’s experiences of childbirth have changed significantly in the past few years in the developing countries like India. Deliveries used to take place only in home setups and anganwadis in olden days, but now it is occurring in private specialist hospitals by experienced nurses in the field of obstetrics. So there arises a increased alienation from the familiar environment and familiar persons (Swarna s, 2006)

In the western world, the process of labour and birth is becoming highly medicalised with a greater number of interventions and a rise in the number of caesarean sections performed (Walsh & Devane, 2012). With this in mind, it is important to examine the reasons behind this, and whether particular models of care demonstrate differences in the safety, rights and self-determination of the woman. This paper will also consider the influence of environmental and cultural factors and the impact of these in labour and birth.

Every seconds a baby is born somewhere in the world. In one day, birth rate can accumulate over three hundred thousand equaling to over 100 million births each year. Childbirth is an event that, despite its extraordinary nature, occurs daily throughout the world. But the circumstances under which this miracle occurs vary dramatically, even in places that don 't seem that dramatically different. Today society, birth take place in the hospital are commonly occuring with close assistances of trained and knowledgeable physicians. Besides physicians, midwives are professional and traditional care providers for mothers and infant. Dated back when hospital did not exist, midwives were the care providers to assist a mother in labor. Although