Book Review

The first obvious changes are to the editors, Bennett & Brown have been replaced by Fraser & Cooper. But for fans of Bennett & Brown, dont panic they do continue to feature as authors for 6/55 chapters. The other subtle shift is in the choice of foreword writers. In most recent editions the foreword was written by a fellow midwifery academic, in this 14th edition, this task has been allocated to the President of the National Childbirth Trust in the UK a promising move toward consideration of the community/woman as consumer perspective and recognition of the reciprocal support between childbirth education and midwifery professionals.

Before entering into the contents of this 1000+ page text, a glance at the cover shows a photograph depicting the facial features of a mother and baby (as compared to the diagrammatic/ultrasonic look-a-like representation of a fetus in utero and pregnant womans silhouette in the previous edition). Also featured are a pregnant womans abdomen, a Pinards and a pair of midwifery hands (with not a glimpse of a machine that goes bleep!) the only slight disappointment is that both the woman and the midwife have been disembodied to hands and abdomen but at least they are human and real.

To put this Midwifery text to the test it had to overcome a few obstacles first be scrutinised by an undergraduate midwifery student; second, answer the three most recent questions put to me by graduate midwifery students and a childbirth education student and finally to answer some of my own concerns about social considerations for midwives, in particular the effects of intimate partner violence during pregnancy.

The verdict from the undergrad midwifery student, This book is great. It is so easy to find what I want without spending too much time having to read through a lot of other gobblygook. I like it!Sound praise indeed from the anecdotal power of one student.

Unfortunately, the most recently asked questions from graduate students were not answered so easily. The first related to the rationale behind the predisposition to postpartum haemorrhage for a woman receiving Syntocinon to induce or augment labour. This text could not answer that question and the student had to find their answer from another source.

The second question related to strategies that a midwife could use in the event of a woman experiencing shoulder dystocia. While this text mentioned the fact that any change in the maternal position may be useful, it did not elaborate except to describe the exaggerated lithotomy position to be used in conjunction with the McRoberts manoeuvre. Disappointing that no mention was made of alternative positions such as those first proposed by Gaskin (Gee & Glynn 1997; Johnson 1999; Drummond, Bruner & Reed 2000 as examples).

The third question related to a comparison between assisted forceps delivery and a spontaneous vaginal birth in terms of emotional outcomes for the mother. The new text offered brief allusions rather than facts but at least the issue was addressed and included some references to investigate further.

My own interests related to violence in pregnancy and unfortunately again I was very disappointed with the lack of depth. In defence of the editors, while much has recently been published in professional literature about the incidence and impact of violence in pregnancy, a text such as this one takes many years to complete to publication. If current information is sought, the most viable sources will always be peer reviewed journals rather than textbooks.

Reading through this review, it sounds as if there are more negatives than positives but that is not the case. Generally speaking this will be an invaluable basic text for the student midwife and/or childbirth educator. I do recommend it as a prescribed text for courses such as the Graduate Diplomas of Midwifery and Childbirth Education as well as the Bachelor of Midwifery. As with any basic textbook, I strongly urge the student to read it in conjunction with other professional literature.

References:

Drummond, S, Bruner, J & Reed, G 2000, Management of Shoulder Dystocia, Tennessee Medicine, vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 331 333.

Fraser, D & Cooper M (eds) 2003, Myles Textbook for Midwives, 14th edn, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.

Gee, H & Glynn, M 1997, The physiology and clinical management of labour, in Essential Midwifery, C. Henderson & K Jones (eds), Mosby, London.

Johnson, J 1999, News, ObGyn News, vol. 34, no. 21, p. 26.

Elaine Dietsch
Midwife