Sustainability, Midwifery and Birth

Environmental awareness and sustainability are vitally important concepts in the twenty first century and, as a low environmental impact healthcare profession, midwifery has the potential to stand as a model of excellence.
This innovative volume promotes a sustainable approach to midwifery practice, philosophy, business administration and resource management. Drawing on an interdisciplinary body of knowledge, this international collection of experts explores the challenges, inviting readers to critically reflect on the issues and consider how they could move to effect changes within their own working environments. Divided into three parts, the book discusses:


The politics of midwifery and sustainability


Midwifery as a sustainable healthcare practice


Supporting an ecological approach to parenting.

Sustainability, Midwifery and Birth identifies existing models of sustainable midwifery practice, such as the continuity of care model, and highlights the potential for midwifery as a role model for ecologically sound health care provision. This unique book is a vital read for all midwives and midwifery students interested in sustainable practice. Contributors include: Sally Baddock, Carol Bartle, Ruth Deery, Nadine Pilley Edwards, Ina May Gaskin, Megan Gibbons, Carolyn Hastie, Mary Kensington, Mavis Kirkham, Nicky Leap, Ruth Martis, Zoë Meleo-Erwin, Jenny Meyer, Jo Murphy-Lawless, Mary Nolan, Sally Pairman and Sally Tracy.

Lorna Davies is a midwife lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand. She was formerly a lecturer in midwifery at Anglia Ruskin University and is co-director of www.withwoman.co.uk. She still carries a small midwifery caseload as a self-employed midwife.

Rea Daellenbach is a midwife lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand. She has a ministerial appointment on the Midwifery Council of New Zealand.

Mary Kensington is Head of Midwifery at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand.

Part 1 The politics of midwifery and sustainability, 1. Globalisation, midwifery and maternity services: struggles in meaning and practice in states under pressure, Jo Murphy Lawless, 2. Sustaining Midwifery in an Ever Changing World, Ina May Gaskin, 3. Costing Birth as Commodity or Sustainable Public Good, Sally Tracy, 4. "Choice" and Justice: Motherhood in a Global Context, Zoe Meleo-Erwin & Barbara Katz-Rothman, Part 2 Midwifery as a Sustainable Healthcare Practice, 5. Relationships - the glue that holds it all together’: midwifery continuity of care and sustainability, Nicky Leap, 6. Promoting a sustainable midwifery workforce: working towards ‘ecologies of practice’, Ruth Deery, 7. Sustained by joy: the potential of flow experience for midwives and mothers, Mavis Kirkham, 8. The Birthing Environment – a sustainable approach, Carolyn Hastie, 9. Sustainable Midwifery Education, Sally Pairman, 10. Mentoring new graduates: Towards supporting a sustainable profession, Mary Kensington , 11. Good Housekeeping in Midwifery Practice, Ruth Martis, Part 3 Supporting an Ecological Approach to Parenting, 12. Parents as Consumers, Lorna Davies, 13. Breastfeeding and sustainability: Loss, cost, ‘choice’, damage, disaster, adaptation and evolutionary logic, Carol Bartle, 14. The Pregnant Environment, Megan Gibbons and Jean Patterson, 15. An Ecology of Antenatal Education, Mary Nolan, 16. Co-sleeping: A Sustainable Healthcare Practice, Sally Baddock, 17. How can birth activism contribute to sustaining change for better birthing for women, families and societies in the new millennium? Rea Daellenbach & Nadine Edwards Epilogue: Planet and Placenta