The power of place

Experiences of women who planned birth in a birth centre compared to alternative planned places of birth. Results of the Dutch Birth Centre Study

“…This is in line with what other international studies have found and can possibly be explained by the positive influence of the familiar environment at home (Cunningham, 1993;Lock and Gibb, 2003). Another study which compared the experiences of women giving birth in a birth centre and at home, did not find differences on overall satisfaction (Borquez and Wiegers, 2006).…”

Time to listen: Strategies to improve hospital-based postnatal care

“…Hospital routines are designed for acute service provision and are often not conducive to the care of healthy postnatal women, or even women who have had a caesarean birth. 31 It is recognised that none of the strategies proposed by the participating midwives were unique or particularly different from what could be considered to be quality postnatal midwifery care. Nonetheless, the findings from phase one and two of this study highlight the need for midwives to reflect on what is often 'taken for granted' in postnatal care and to recognise and act on the tensions between institutional priorities to complete tasks and women's need to have a midwife take the time to listen to and address their individual concerns.…”

The corporeal, the social and space/place: exploring intersections from a midwifery perspective in New Zealand

“…While childbirth is emotional, social, cultural and sometimes spiritual, it is always physical, and several geographers have focused attention on the intersections between bodies and spaces (see for example , Teather 1999;Sharpe 1999;Longhurst 2008). To date the focus in geography and also in the midwifery literature has been on the experience of the childbearing woman (Abel and Kearns 1991;Davis 1995;Edwards 2000;Lock and Gibb 2003;Longhurst 1997;Morison et al 1998). This article examines midwifery practice (and invariably midwives' perspectives on the maternal body and childbirth) as it is (em)placed in the obstetric hospital setting.…”