ABOUT THE AUTHOR x PREFACE/INTRODUCTION xi ABOUT THE COMPANION WEBSITE xii Section 1 Caregivers and Future-Caregivers 1 1 Our Responsibilities and Desires in Maternity Care 3 2 Hopes and Dreams for Maternity Care 6 3 Handover 11 4 Mentoring Future-Caregivers 15 Section 2 The Labour Room Environment 25 5 The Labour Room Environment 27 6 The Labour Room Environment -Our Impact 45 Section 3 Care During Labour and Birth 73 7 The Labour Room Welcome 75 8 Eating and Drinking in Labour 78 9 Mobility in Labour 81 10 Monitoring in Labour with Our Heads, Hearts and Hands 87 11 Caring for Women Experiencing Painful Contractions 108 12 When a Woman Feels the Urge to Push 121 13 Care During the Birth 131 14 Waterbirth 147 15 Breech - An Unusual Normal by Tanya Burchell and Dr. Shawn Walker 158 16 Vaginal Birth After Caesarean Section - The New Normal 194 17 Meconium: An Obstetric Hazard or a Friendly, Fellow Traveller? 201 18 Initial Care and Assessment of the Motherbaby Unit 212 19 Initial Care of Low-Birth-Weight Babies 224 20 Birth of the Placenta 229 21 Assessing and Repairing Perineal Trauma 242 Section 4 Complex Needs in Labour 249 22 Prelabour Rupture of Membranes 251 23 Preterm Labour and Birth 256 24 Labour Dystocia - Or a Labour that Extends Beyond the Allotted Time Given by Caregivers 263 25 Inducing Labour 284 26 Medical Challenges: Hypertension, Obstetric Cholestasis, Diabetes Mellitus, Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia 303 27 Caring for Women and Babies Experiencing Birth by Forceps or Vacuum 311 28 Caesarean Section 315 29 Tokophobia 327 Section 5 Postnatal Care 329 30 Compassionate Care for the Postnatal Motherbaby Unit 331 31 Breastfeeding 344 32 Hypoglycaemia, Hypothermia and Hypoxia 357 33 Neonatal Jaundice 365 Section 6 Prompt Care in a Critical, Obstetric Event 371 34 Maternal Sepsis 373 35 When a Baby Becomes Stuck 379 36 Cord Presentation and Prolapse 387 37 Postpartum Haemorrhage 390 38 Severe Pre-eclampsia, Eclampsia and HELLP Syndrome 397 39 Adult and Newborn Life Support 402 Section 7 When a Mother or Baby Dies 413 40 When a Mother or a Baby Dies 415 INDEX 427.