Full Description
This book is an essential reading for midwives, healthcare professionals or doulas working with mothers and infants around the time of childbirth, to know more about how the physical and psychological birth experience may affect both mother and baby.
It provides an extensive investigation of the multiple factors around childbirth and the early postnatal period that can contribute to early infant behaviour and temperament development. Building on previous research, the book explores not only physical and physiological aspects of childbirth, but also multiple subjective and psychological factors, such as how well the mother felt supported during the birth and postnatally, and how she experienced her birth and early postnatal period - on both a physical and emotional level. The book covers three in-depth studies and relates this original research to other literature in the field.
Finally, the book aims to leave the reader more knowledgeable, aware and compassionate about childbirth as a holistic, transformative and life-changing experience, involving both body and mind, and about the all-important mother and baby outcomes of this experience.
Foreword by Professor Lesley Page, Oxford
Contents
Chapter 1. An introduction to early infant behaviour in the context of childbirth.- Chapter 2. A brief introduction to infant temperament and parent-infant bonding.- Chapter 3. How is Childbirth Related to Bonding and Baby Behaviour? Physical factors that may influence the course of childbirth and infant outcomes.- Chapter 4. Psychological Impacts of Childbirth on Mother and Baby.- Chapter 5. Maternity care providers' perceptions of childbirth and baby behaviour.- Chapter 6. Mothers' childbirth experiences and perceptions of their baby's behaviour.- Chapter 7. Physical and psychological experiences of childbirth and baby behaviour: A survey of a thousand mothers - Part One.- Chapter 8. Physical and psychological experiences of childbirth and baby behaviour: A survey of a thousand mothers - Part Two.- Chapter 9. Joining the Dots - What does this all mean for the future of maternity care?.
