Family-Centred Perinatal Care
Improving Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum Care
Since childbirth became a medicalized – and usually hospitalized – event a century ago, women’s and families’ psychosocial needs have been relegated to a somewhat peripheral role within the clinically focussed hierarchy of medical care. This text reinstates psychosocial issues as a primary focus of care, together with clinical excellence. Family-centred care is a familiar phrase in today’s Family Centered Care maternity services, with professional guidelines and hospital policies including the term in their care protocols; however, few definitions, and no specific standards, for family-centred care exist. While all caregivers and care services are likely to define their care as sensitive to women’s needs, and family-centred, the actual implementation of a family-centred approach – despite it being a current fashion in care – is still inadequate. This book clearly defines family-centred perinatal care, and outlines how truly family-centred care can, and should, be implemented, and how, and where, this has been done.
Reviews
Advance praise: 'If you think that you are already practicing humane, evidence-based, family-centered perinatal care, please read Beverley's book. Reader-friendly and written with passion and scientific rigor, the book shows how medical practice may drift away from its mission of combining cure with tender loving care, and presents well-thought out prescriptions to set our practice on its noble course.' Mahmoud F. Fathalla, Former President of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetric
Advance praise: 'I found this book to be fascinating, informative, and beautifully written. I loved the first-person, personal way in which Dr Chalmers presented the evidence, her evaluation of it, the reasons for her evaluation, and above all the presentation of her own invaluable research and what she learned from it. Dr Chalmers has captured the perfect balance between objectivity and subjectivity.' Murray Enkin FRCSC, Order of Canada Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton