Preserving Normal Birth: Implementing Educational Conferences for Health Care Professionals

Early Term Birth

“…Nurses can provide lay literature to the patients they care for in both the hospital and community setting (see Get the Facts for resources). Nurses can participate in educating patients and health care providers about normal birth (Broussard & Broussard, ) and the prevention of nonmedically indicated delivery before 39 weeks. Sharing the facts about the benefits of term birth through media outlets (radio, public service announcements, newspapers, letters to the editor) and social networks would also be helpful to disseminate this valuable information to a wide audience (see Box 4).…”

“…Yet the ideal length of human gestation has been regarded as arbitrary and is oft en adjusted to meet the demands of modern society (Oshiro, Henry, Wilson, Branch, & Varner, 2009). Normal birth or spontaneous physiologic birth has been threatened by high rates of elective induction and cesarean deliveries (Broussard & Broussard, 2011). Th us far, the immediate and long-term health impact of a delivery that takes place on the cusp of prematurity (37 weeks gestation) remains largely unexplored.…”