Includes appendix, glossary, reference directory and index.

Contents: Part one: Contemporary maternity Nursing: Current perspectives on maternal-newborn nursing -- Tools for maternal-newborn nursing -- Part two: The contemporary family: Trends, issues and concerns: Dynamics of family life -- Social issues and the childbearing woman -- Family violence -- Part three: Reproductive organs and related health issues: The reproductive system -- From menarche to menopause: The woman's experience -- Sexuality and reproductive choices -- Special reproductive concerns -- Disorders of the female reproductive system -- Gynecologic surgery -- Rape -- Part four: Pregnancy: Conception and fetal development -- Physical and psychologic changes of pregnancy -- Antepartal nursing assessment -- The expectant couple: needs and care -- Maternal nutrition -- Preparation for parenthood -- Pregnancy at risk -- Diagnostic assessment of fetal status -- Part five: Labor and delivery: Processes and stages of labor and delivery -- Intrapartal nursing assessment -- The family in childbirth: Needs and care -- Maternal analgesia and anesthesia -- The intrapartal family at risk -- Obstetric procedures and the role of the nurse -- Part six: The newborn: Physiologic responses of the newborn to birth -- Neonatal nursing assessment -- The normal newborn: needs and care -- The normal newborn: successful feeding -- The newborn at risk: needs and care -- Complications of the newborn -- Part seven: The postpartal period: Postpartal adaptation and nursing assessment -- The postpartal family: needs and care -- Attachment -- The postpartal family at risk.