Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities A Guide to the Medical Literature

Subjects:

• Family Resources » Pregnancy & Birthing
• Health/Medicine » Health/Medicine (General)
• Women's Studies » Women's Health

Related Web Pages:

• Henci Goer's Home Page

Reviews:

• ...an extremely useful resource for everyone who works in the field of maternity care, for policy makers, and for childbearing women and couples. Scientific documentation for many obstetric practices is at their fingertips in this readable guide. Childbirth educators and practitioners will find it both an educational tool for themselves and a motivation to give improved care to women in pregnancy and birth. Policy makers can use it to make their case for implementing changes in practice. Armed with the information it provides, pregnant women can ask knowledgeable questions, make informed decisions, and experience less intervention in their births. You can be sure that this thoroughly researched 'Guide to the Medical Literature' in obstetrics will be a frequently used reference.
  —Birth
• [T]his would serve as a scientific obstetric 'Bible' to keep at hand, to dip into when help is needed on a particular subject. It will provide chapter and verse to support midwifery solutions to obstetric problems, it will comfort in times of despair, and it will keep one's heart and soul in the right place.
  —Midwifery Matters

• Endorsement From Penny Simkin, P.T., Childbirth Educator, Doula
  
  co-author,Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn
  
  
  and author, The Birth Partner: Unencumbered by the burden of conventional obstetrical thinking, Ms. Goer takes a fresh look at current customs in maternity care. Using logic, common sense, and the latest scientific findings, she has written an incisive critique, inspiring us all--physicians, midwives, childbirth educators, nurses, doulas, and expectant parents--to rethink and question routine care as it exists today. This is "must" reading for all who participate in maternity care.
• Endorsement From Marshall H. Klaus, M.D.
  
  
  Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
  
  
  University of California, San Francisco
  
  
  and author,Mothering the Mother: An extremely scholarly and detailed evaluation of the many controversial interventions and issues involved in obstetrical care."
• Endorsement From Robbie E. Davis-Floyd, Ph.D.
  
  
  author,Birth as an American Rite of Passage: Many in the birth community have been waiting for this book with anticipation; it will more than fulfill their expectations. Kudos to Henci Goer for providing quick, easy, and comprehensive access to essential information about the dangers of technobirth. Women in the technocracy have too rapidly embraced the Trojan horse of technology without looking inside this "gift" to see its very real dangers. Let this book be their wake-up call!
• Endorsement From Roberta M. Scaer, M.S.S.
  
  
  Co-author, A Good Birth, A Safe Birth
  : Maternity care as we know it is based on myths that are hammered home as truths. This book offers the chance to break free from that pessimistic model and embrace one of genuine health care. Ms. Goer teaches you how to understand the medical/obstetric literature . . . She also shows through the literature how midwifery and out-of-hospital birth are scientifically valid and more likely to result in a healthy mother and baby.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• The Nature of Evidence: How to Read the Medical Literature
• The Cesarean Epidemic
• The Cesarean Rate
• Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
• Cephalopelvic Disproportion, Failure to Progress, Labor Dystocia and Active Management
• Breech Presentation
• Fetal Distress and Electronic Fetal Monitoring
• Pregnancy and Labor Management
• Gestational Diabetes
• Postdates Pregnancy: Induction versus Watching and Waiting
• Premature Rupture of Membranes at Term
• IVs versus Eating and Drinking in Labor
• Amniotomy
• Epidural Anesthesia
• Episiotomy
• The Case for an Alternative System
• Midwives
• The Freestanding Birth Center
• Home Birth
• The Nature of Evidence (Reprise): Why the Gap Between Belief and Reality?
• Glossary