Pregnancy Care for the 1980s [electronic resource] : Based on a Conference Held at the Royal Society of Medicine

Disquiet about the ways in which expectant mothers might view the attractiveness, accessibility and importance of antenatal care is not new. Professional or official accounts of consumer dissatisfaction with antenatal services display marked similarities over many decades. To illustrate this point, and to place it in historical perspective, I should like to quote some comments from a discussion on 'Whither Ante-Natal Care?' held by the section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Royal Society of Medicine on 21 October 1949. Consumer Reaction to Present-day Antenatal Services 13 Table 2.1. Reported levels of satisfaction with information/explanation in antenatal care (small-scale studies) Graham and McKee (1979) (n = 2(0): 34 % felt they did not have the opportunity to ask questions. 80 % felt they had not learnt anything from clinic check-ups. Reid and McIlwaine (1980) (n = 91): 39 % said they did not find out all they wanted. ## Perkins (1978) (n = 40): 43 % felt there were specific issues they wanted explained. 45 % said no explanations had been offered. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Are Our Accepted Practices Based on Valid Assumptions?....Pages 3-8 Consumer Reaction to Present-day Antenatal Services....Pages 9-17 The Provision of Community Antenatal Services....Pages 18-27 Community-based Specialist Obstetric Services....Pages 28-31 Community Antenatal Care: The Sighthill Community Antenatal Scheme....Pages 32-48 Front Matter....Pages 49-49 The Myth of Bonding....Pages 51-58 Facts, Beliefs and Misconceptions about the Bonding Process....Pages 59-62 A Psychotherapist’s Role in a Special Care Baby Unit....Pages 63-70 Family-centred Obstetrics....Pages 71-76 How to Help Women in Labour....Pages 77-90 Front Matter....Pages 91-91 Statistical Comparison of Home and Hospital Confinements....Pages 93-104 Understanding Intranatal Care through Mortality Statistics....Pages 105-114 The Dutch Experience of Domiciliary Confinements....Pages 115-125 The Significance of the Home Delivery Issue....Pages 126-132 The Community Midwife and Domiciliary Confinements....Pages 133-149 Front Matter....Pages 151-151 Modern Obstetrics and Patient Care....Pages 153-164 The Role of the General Practitioner in Hospital Obstetrics....Pages 165-175 What are We Expecting of our Midwives?....Pages 176-179 A Comparison of General Practitioner and Specialist Delivery Services....Pages 180-195 Experiences of Obstetric Practices in Differing Countries....Pages 196-212 Front Matter....Pages 213-213 A Medical View....Pages 215-222 A Midwife’s Perspective....Pages 223-225 The Role of the Health Visitor....Pages 226-230 The Place of the Non-professional Educator....Pages 231-236 School Age is the Time to Start....Pages 237-247 Front Matter....Pages 249-249 Which Way Forward for Obstetrics?....Pages 251-253 What are We Training Our General Practitioners for?....Pages 254-257 What Sort of Midwifery Service do We Want?....Pages 258-262 The Consumer’s Role: Adversary or Partner?....Pages 263-277 Back Matter....Pages 279-280