Includes index.

Contents: Section1: Women and midwives: Women, midwives, partnership and power -- Conflicting ideologies as a source of emotion work in midwifery -- Advice on advice -- Developing maternity unit visiting policy -- Handle with care! -- Protecting the public – from me -- The landscape for caring for women: a narrative study of midwifery practice -- Midwives: praise and beyond -- Topics for further reflection -- Section 2: Focus on . . . the birthing environment: How women choose where to give birth --Home birth: a social process, not a medical crisis -- Home birth: safe as houses? -- The influence of maternity units intrapartum intervention rates and midwives risk perception for women suitable for midwifery – led care -- Birth centres: a success story -- Defining and developing the birth centre -- Improving the birthing environment -- Topics for further reflection -- Section 3: Pregnancy: Tell me a story -- Getting parent education right -- Fears and feelings in second – time pregnancy -- Women needs from antenatal care in three European countries -- Women’s experiences of unexpected ultrasound feelings -- TTP and me -- A guide to less common antenatal blood test -- The assisted conception pregnancy -- Asking the question: antenatal domestic violence -- Preventing infant allergies -- Topics for further reflection --Section 4: Women, midwives and risks: Blood transfusion: the hidden dangers -- Coagulation disorders (1) deep vein thrombosis: breaking the silence -- Coagulation disorders (2) pulmonary embolism -- An early warning system for pre – eclampsia -- Topics for further reflection -- Section 5: Labour and birth: Birth that taught me important lessons -- Unlocking the potential for normality -- Lambs to the slaughter -- Water: what are we afraid of? -- Routine cord blood gas analysis: an overreaction? -- Need to know: vaginal birth after caesarian (part1) -- Need to know: vaginal birth after caesarian (part2) -- Does pethidine relieve pain? -- More than a cuddle: skin – to – skin is key -- To cut or not to cut? -- Smile for your sphincter --- Topics for further reflection -- Section 6: Focus on . . . holistic health: -- Ice massage for reduction of labour pain -- Float like a butterfly . . .yoga and birth --Giving birth on a beach: hypnosis and psychology -- A time to bloom -- Ginger: an essential oil for shortening labour? -- Rebirthing birth -- Section 7: Life after birth: The ‘golden orb’ of the postnatal period: a midwife’s role in the process of integrating a renewed self story in a mother following birth -- Let’s ban water torture -- Cochrane made simple: topical umbilical cord care at birth -- Don’t mention the ‘B’ word -- Maternal breastfeeding positions: have we got it right? (1) --- Maternal breastfeeding positions: have we got it right? (2) -- A randomised controlled trail in the north of England examining the effect of skin – to – skin care on breast feeding -- Expression of love -- Breastfeeding peer support in Doncaster: the next stage, learning from each other -- Section 8: Focus on . . . working / international stories: empowering women in Ngorno – Karabakh -- Birth and death in Sierra Leone -- Caring for mama and pikinini in Papua New Guinea -- On mission with Medicins Sans Frontieres -- Contraception education in Brazil -- Home thoughts from abroad – Section 9: Stories and reflections: A midwife reborn -- Let’s be realistic . . . -- The birth of Nuno -- Sitting in judgement: a personal reflection -- Managing cord prolapse at home birth -- Celebrating the ‘art’ of midwifery -- Four labours and amars bar -- There is a foot -- An education in training -- Midwifing my daughter, receiving my grandson -- Spreading some magic.