Labour Rhythms

Walsh, Denis

doi:10.1002/9781444317701.ch5

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Obstetric models of birth divide labour into a series of sequential stages to be measured and monitored (Walsh, 2010a). The first stage contains a latent phase, during which the cervix is not expected to open in a linear fashion in relation to the clock.…”

Section: Introduction: Timing Labour and Birthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Talking cervixes: How times materialise during the first stage of labour

Beynon‐Jones,

Jackson

2023

Sociology Health & Illness

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The clock occupies a prominent position in many feminist and midwifery critiques of the medicalisation of labour and birth. Concern has long focused on the production of standardised ‘progress’ during labour via the expectation that once in ‘established’ labour, birthing people’s cervixes should dilate at a particular rate, measurable in centimetres and clock time. In this article we draw on 37 audio‐ or video‐recordings of women labouring in two UK midwife‐led units in NHS hospital settings to develop a more nuanced critique of the way in which times materialise during labour. Mobilising insights from literature that approaches time as relational we suggest that it is helpful to explore the making of times during labour as multiple, uncertain and open‐ended. This moves analysis of time during labour and birth beyond concern with particular forms of time (such as the clock or the body) towards understanding how times are constituted through interactions (for example, between midwives, cervixes, clocks, people in labour and their birth partners), and what they do.

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Section: Introduction: Timing Labour and Birthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Talking cervixes: How times materialise during the first stage of labour

Beynon‐Jones,

Jackson

2023

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…Walsh (2003Walsh ( , 2007Walsh ( , 2010 and Schmid and Downe (2010) argue for a change in our way of conceptualising labour with a move away from a linear understanding of stages and phases to one of cycles and rhythms. Midwives have long observed women's behaviour and considered that the behaviour provides indicators that labour is moving towards birth (Burvill, 2002;Duff, 2005).…”

Section: A Model For Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emotional and Hormonal Pathways of Labour and Birth: Integrating Mind, Body and Behaviour.

Dixon¹,

Skinner²,

Foureur³

2013

nzcomjnl

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Background: Women have described normal labour and birth in terms of their emotions. Major advances in knowledge have occurred within the sciences resulting in an understanding of emotions as prime directors of human behaviour which is orchestrated by neurohormones. Method: This paper focusses on key aspects of contemporary knowledge of childbirth physiology, neuroscience and behaviour. It integrates this understanding with women's descriptions of their emotions during labour. Findings: Neurohormones associated with labour and birth are designed to trigger a transformation in the body and behaviour and create an environment which supports both the mother and the baby. Hormones and emotions are intertwined and interconnected. Labour hormones are linked to the woman's emotions and behaviour during labour and birth as well as the physical signs of labour. An interactive model is presented which explains labour in terms of both the physical effects and the emotional affects that women have described as part of their labour experience. The hypothesis for this model is that the hormones that initiate and sustain labour also cause the instinctual emotions that women feel, and the behaviour they exhibit, during spontaneous labour and birth. Conclusions: Hormonal changes are necessary to support the physical and emotional changes during labour and birth. The neurohormones which operate during pregnancy and during labour and birth also support

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Time, risk and midwife practice: the vaginal examination

Scamell

Stewart

2014

Health, Risk & Society

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractIn this article we examine the impact of evidence-based practice with its shift from individual autonomous practice based on personal experience and intuition (embodied knowledge) to collective control of work based on encoded knowledge (guidelines and protocols) on , midwife practice. We focus on the ways in which midwives use of partograms and associated vaginal examination to monitor and manage the progress of labour. The partogram represents (amongst other things) a timetable for dilation of the cervix during labour and women who fail to keep up with this timetable are shifted from a low to high risk category and subject to additional surveillance and intervention. In this article we draw on empirical evidence taken from two independent ethnographic studies of midwifery talk and practice in England undertaken in 2005-2007 and 2008-2010, to describe the ways in which midwives practice vaginal examinations during labour both complies with, while at the same time creatively subverts the scientific-bureaucratic approach to maternity care. We argue that the success of the labour care provision in the policy current context depends as much upon midwives' routine techniques of subversion, as it does upon midwifery compliance to standardised care policy objectives. Moreover, the suggestion is that although divergent in nature, each way of practicing is mutually dependent upon the other: the space afforded by midwifery creativity not only co-exists with the scientific-bureaucratic approach to care, it sustains it.

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Labour Rhythms

Cited by 5 publications

References 50 publications

Talking cervixes: How times materialise during the first stage of labour

Talking cervixes: How times materialise during the first stage of labour

The Emotional and Hormonal Pathways of Labour and Birth: Integrating Mind, Body and Behaviour.

Time, risk and midwife practice: the vaginal examination

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