pregnancy & birth articles

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Essay- what is normal birth?
2008-02-24 14:29:00
The World Health Organisation, 1985 define normal birth as: Spontaneous in onset, low-risk at the start of labour and remaining so throughout labour and delivery. The infant is born spontaneously in the vertex position between 37 and 42 completed weeks of pregnancy. After birth mother and infant are in good condition. The majority of fit and healthy women invariably expect to have a 'normal' birth. In an attempt to understand what will happen to them during birth they devour childbirth magazines, women's magazines, health education leaflets and any other material they can find. Believing that the experts know best they happily follow the doctors' and midwives' advice in the expectation that they will be safe in the hands of professionals, and their birth plans, if they have made them, will be respected. In 1997 AIMS raised the question of what is normal birth? So often women tell us of their traumatic birth experiences and state that they are not going to have a 'normal birth...
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Asthma during pregnancy Essay
2008-02-24 14:28:00
Asthma is a very common long-term condition that affects a persons airways and breathing. Approximately one adult in 13 is currently being treated for asthma in the UK (NHS, 2006). Asthma is an acute respiratory illness which is characterised by airway obstruction, airway inflammation and increased responsiveness to various stimuli including environmental irritants, viral respiratory infections, cold air and exercise. Asthma has been thought to be linked to an overactive immune system. In an asthma attack, the bronchi are irritable and have a tendancy to become swollen and inflamed, producing excess mucus that can block the smaller airways. (Swiet, 2002). The muscle in the walls of the airways contracts causing narrowing ( see appendix 1). Asthma attacks can vary in severity from mild breathlessness to respiratory failure. The main symptoms are wheezing, breathlessness, dry cough and a tightness in the chest. In a severe attack, breathing becomes increasingly difficult resulting in...
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Antepartum haemorrhage essay
2008-02-24 14:25:00
Antepartum Haemorrhage This essay is designed to explore antepartum haemorrhage (APH), but as it is a wide topic area for discussion, the management will focus on haemorrhage due to placental abruption or abruptio placentae. The condition will briefly be defined, followed by a discussion of the predisposing factors. As there are many factors which contribute to APH, domestic violence as a pre-disposing factor will be elaborated upon. The term antepartum haemorrhage is applied to bleeding from the vagina occurring at any time from the 24th week of pregnancy and before the birth of the baby (Baskett, 1999) The largest identifiable cause of stillbirth (13.9%) between 2000-2002 were ante-partum haemorrhage (Cemach,2004) There are 3 main factors which cause APH: Haemorrhage from a normally situated placenta (placental abruption), haemorrhage from partial separation of a placenta abnormally situated in the lower uterine segment (placenta praevia) and haemorrhage from a lesion of the ...
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