Polona Mivšek, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Midwifery at the Faculty of Health Studies; Midwifery Department, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is a member of an educational committee of International Confederation of Midwives. Her research interests are continuity of midwifery care, evidence-based midwifery, sexology in midwifery and sociological issues of midwifery.
Midwifery across the globe faces different issues. In some countries the autonomy of the profession is a tradition, while in some societies midwives struggle to practice autonomously the basic competencies. In one part of the world the medicalisation of childbirth is the main issue, preventing the natural processes of pregnancy and childbirth to flow at their own pace, while in other parts of the world midwives struggle with lack of resources to provide safe midwifery care. The authors of this book practice midwifery in different cultures and within different social contexts. They have to deal with different obstacles and seek solutions to diverse problems. With their contributions, they offer an insight into their thinking, their dilemmas, and the problems of midwifery practices in their countries. However, despite different backgrounds, they all have in common a uniform goal - a wish to offer women optimal midwifery care and to improve midwifery services.
Go to the bookPart of the book: Clinical, Research and Treatment Approaches to Affective Disorders
Part of the book: Mood Disorders
Part of the book: Sexology in Midwifery
The very first hour in a baby’s life can have a significant—lifelong—impact on the health of the baby and on the bond between the mother and a baby. Keeping mothers and babies together is a safe and healthy birth practice. Childbirth and the first hour after birth is a time of many changes for both mother and child. Changes are also physiological, as well as psychological. Creating an optimal environment for birth boosts the right hormones for natural birth, which reduces the need for interventions that could cause early mother-baby separation. One of the major challenges in the birth hospital is how best to combine a midwifery care and those medical procedures that are not necessary, to right form the birth as a family intimate and privacy event, if, of course, the child and maternal health would allow this. The first hour after birth is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion for both the baby and the parents, a unique experience, and once lost, it can never be relived.
Part of the book: Selected Topics in Neonatal Care