Mum Reviews...

What is a Midwife? (Guest Post)

This post is written by Erica Moss. Erica is the social media outreach coordinator for the online Masters in Nursing program at Georgetown University, which has one of the nation’s leading nursing education programs. Outside of work, Erica is an avid dog lover who loves photography and meeting new people.

One of the most common misconceptions about midwives is that they only handle childbirth. In fact, midwives are part of the entire birthing process, from pre-natal care and counseling, through the delivery to post partum care. Midwives work to identify the individual and family needs of each patient, and counsel and support mothers, not only physically, but also emotionally and socially. In addition to involvement with pregnancies, midwives also perform annual gynecological exams, care during menopause and other normal obstetrical functions.

Midwives come in different forms depending on education and practice. They fall into two larger groups: nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives, and the differences between them are important.

Fear of Childbirth Increases Likelihood of C-Section (Press Release)

A new study published in the international journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica (AOGS) reveals that fear of childbirth is a predisposing factor for emergency and elective cesarean sections, even after psychological counseling. This may mean a negative experience that lasts a lifetime among the approximately 3% of women who in this study were estimated to suffer from excessive fear of childbirth.

Led by Professor Gunilla Sydsjo of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University Hospital in Linköping, Central Sweden, researchers analyzed the antenatal and delivery records of 353 women who were referred to a unit for psychosocial obstetrics and gynecology because of fear of childbirth, and 579 women without fear of childbirth.