Midwifery Essentials: Labour

Key Features

• Assessment and the role of the midwife in early labour
• The first stage of labour, monitoring maternal and fetal wellbeing
• Coping with contractions, without pharmacological pain relief
• Advantages and disadvantages of pharmacological analgesia
• Indications for induction or augmentation of labour
• The second stage of labour and the procedure for episiotomy
• The third stage of labour and the impact of different approaches
• Different methods of anaesthesia and preparation for caesarean birth
• The procedure for evidence-based perineal suturing.

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Author Information

By Helen Baston, BA(Hons), MMedSci, PhD, PGDipEd, ADM, RN, RM, Lead Midwife for Education; Supervisor of Midwives, Mother & Infant Research Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK and Jennifer Hall, MSc, ADM, PGDip(HE), RN, RM, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK; Clinical Editor, The Practising MidwifeBack To Top