Midwifery in a Health Care Context
Edited by:
Karyn Kaufman, DrPH
Professor Emerita
Faculty of Health Sciences
McMaster University
1. Birth and its Meanings: Representations of Birth in Art
We have made representations of pregnancy, birth, and parenthood for millennia. To be present when looking and/or listening to representations of childbirth, involves asking questions about the work and our relationship with it. How does art inform or enhance our perspective on birth?
2. Midwifery Care and Human Rights
What does it mean to incorporate a human rights perspective into midwifery? What are social determinants of health and how do they relate to health inequity? We examine selected statements from midwifery codes of ethics that underline the necessity for a human rights perspective and describe a human rights approach.
If midwifery is so fundamentally important, why is it not fully implemented in every country? We discuss the definition of midwifery, and provide a summary of the evidence for the impact of midwifery on survival, health and well-being using current data on important health outcomes from the Lancet and WHO.
4. Health Policy Analysis in Midwifery
Introducing midwifery care into health systems in Canada was a long-awaited and welcome change for many but a change that was resisted by others. How are health care policies defined, and what processes set the government’s agenda before new policies are created?
