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Diary of a Midwife The Power of Positive Childbearing
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Juliana van Olphen-Fehr
Book Code: G588
ISBN: 0-89789-588-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-89789-588-0
240 pages
Bergin & Garvey Trade
Publication: 9/30/1998
List Price: $34.95 (UK Sterling Price: £19.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Paperback
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • With the United States ranking among the top 25 nations in infant mortality, and with the lack of health insurance for many women, midwives offering patient-centered care to low-risk women are a necessary alternative. Van Olphen-Fehr's crusade is an important one. Recommended for all collections.
    —Library Journal
  • Van Olphen-Fehr's many patient-care anecdotes, drawn from her midwifery practice (and replete with dialogue), are often absorbing, demonstrating how pregnant women can be counseled to take care of their physical and emotional needs during pregnancy and to participate actively during the birth process.
    —Publishers Weekly
  • This book demonstrates great courage. It gives an accurate account of issues we face in modern-day birth....I was mesmerized by the power of Juliana's observations and insights....This fascinating book will inspire care providers and families to reclaim the power of birth simply by its honesty.
    —Midwifery Today
  • Endorsement From Marsden Wagner, MD, MSPH
    Former Director of Women and Children's Health
    World Health Organization:     This is a beautiful book which accurately describes the situation in the United States today with regard to the practice of midwifery. Every statement in this book is scientifically accurate and medically valid. ...Women in the U.S. who are pregnant or want to be pregnant should read this book before they choose their maternity care provider....I can recommend this book without reservation to everyone.
  • Endorsement From Peggy O'Mara
    Editor and Publisher, Mothering Magazine:     This book is a must for all midwives...and for all who want to reclaim the confidence and dignity that is the right of birthing women.
  • Endorsement From Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM
    President, Midwives' Alliance of North America:     Juliana Fehr's book is as honest and courageous as she is. What a midwife! Every pregnant woman in America would do well to read it.
Description: Despite our country's affluence and high-tech advances in neonatal intensive care, in 1994 the U.S. ranked twenty-first in infant mortality rates among developed countries with populations over 2.5 million. Women with low-risk pregnancies are frequently failed by the traditional obstetrical system, either because they cannot afford proper prenatal care--and therefore often give birth to babies who need to be assisted by expensive neonatal intensive care--or because the system fosters an attitude of dependency on doctors, surgery and drugs, rather than a sense of empowerment during the birth process. This enlightening book demonstrates with conviction that childbirth can and should be a process of empowerment, and that midwifery should be the standard of care for women with low-risk pregnancies. Diary of a Midwife, written by a certified nurse-midwife and the founder of the first nurse-midwifery graduate education program in Virginia, is based on the author's 13 years delivering babies in rural Virginia. Through the author's experiences as a midwife, mother of three, and veteran of training as a labor and delivery nurse in a busy hospital's maternity ward, the midwife care alternative is revealed to be the best way for healthy women to be collaborators in their own care. Midwives encourage women to develop their inner power for the birth process by providing teaching, support, and comfort. Adequate prenatal care reduces the number of premature and low-birth weight babies, and costly, traumatic medical interventions such as Cesarean and forceps deliveries, episiotomies and routine anesthesia are often avoided. Author Juliana van Olphen-Fehr movingly shows that midwifery is an art and that it can do much to create mothers who are able to greet their newborns with dignified, loving, and strong arms. _
LC Card Number: 98-3358
LCC Class: RG961
Dewey Class: 618
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