Margie Polden Memorial Lecture: The normalization of childbirth in modern maternity care

Author(s): L. A. Page - Pages: 5–9

Abstract

A straightforward healthy birth gives babies the best start in life, and offers mothers and fathers/other parents the ideal introduction to being part of a family. The physiological processes that maintain progress in labour and maternal recovery after birth, the health of the baby, mother–baby bonding, and breastfeeding are best supported when major interventions are avoided. This paper highlights emerging evidence about the physiological processes that occur during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Cost-effectiveness is crucial, and higher rates of normal birth will ease the pressure on services and help to control costs. For women who require medical care, it is important that the experience is normalized as much as possible, and that support is provided during this critical transition to family life. Drawing on the Maternity Care Working Party definition of normal birth, the author describes the current rates of normal birth and interventions in the UK. She considers facts about the risks of intervention, and from evidence and experience, suggests ways of supporting normal physiological birth, including the establishment of supportive relationships, environments and practices, multi-professional working, and midwifery-led care and place of birth.

Keywords: maternity care, midwifery-led care, mother–baby attachment, normal birth.