Trends in Midwifery Research

Midwifery is used to describe a number of different types of health practitioners, other than doctors, who provide prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant and provide postnatal care to the mother and infant. Nurse-midwives also provide gynaecological care to women of all ages. Practitioners of midwifery are known as midwives, a term used in reference to both women and men (the term means with the woman ). Most are independent practitioners who work with obstetricians when the need arises. They usually deal with normal births only but are trained to recognise and deal with deviation from the norm. If something abnormal is discovered during prenatal care, the client is sent to an obstetrician. Other midwives will deal with abnormal births, including breech birth. There are two main divisions of modern midwifery in the United States, nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives. In the United Kingdom midwives are practitioners in their own right, and take responsibility for the antenatal, intrapartum and immediate postnatal care of women. In many parts of the world, midwives delivery far more children than doctors. This new book brings together the latest research on this ever-changing field.