Oxford Handbook of Midwifery

THE INDISPENSABLE COMPANIONTO ALL ASPECTS OF MIDWIFERY AND OBSTETRIC PRACTICE

MIDWIFERY

E
D
ITED B
Y

Janet Medforth
,
Susan Battersby, Maggie Evans, Beverley Marsh
,
and Angela Walker

OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONS

Oxford Handbook of

Midwifery

Published and forthcoming Oxford Handbooks in Nursing

Oxford Handbook of Midwifery 2e
Janet Medforth, Susan Battersby, Maggie Evans, Beverley Marsh, and Angela Walker

Oxford Handbook of Mental Health Nursing

Edited by Patrick Callaghan and Helen Waldock

Oxford Handbook of Children’s and Young People’s Nursing
Edited by Edward Alan Glasper, Gillian McEwing, and Jim Richardson

Oxford Handbook of Prescribing for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals
Sue Beckwith and Penny Franklin

Oxford Handbook of Cancer Nursing

Edited by Mike Tadman and Dave Roberts

Oxford Handbook of Cardiac Nursing

Edited by Kate Johnson and Karen Rawlings-Anderson

Oxford Handbook of Primary Care Nursing

Edited by Vari Drennan and Claire Goodman

Oxford Handbook of Gastrointestinal Nursing
Edited by Christine Norton, Julia Williams, Claire Taylor, Annmarie Nunwa, and Kathy Whayman

Oxford Handbook of Respiratory Nursing

Terry Robinson and Jane Scullion

Oxford Handbook of Nursing Older People

Beverley Tabernacle, Marie Barnes, and Annette Jinks

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Skills in Adult Nursing
Jacqueline Randle, Frank Coffey, and Martyn Bradbury

Oxford Handbook of Emergency Nursing

Edited by Robert Crouch, Alan Charters, Mary Dawood, and Paula Bennett

Oxford Handbook of Dental Nursing

Kevin Seymour, Dayananda Samarawickrama, Elizabeth Boon and Rebecca Parr

Oxford Handbook of Diabetes Nursing

Lorraine Avery and Sue Beckwith

Oxford Handbook of Musculoskeletal Nursing
Edited by Susan Oliver

Oxford Handbook of Women’s Health Nursing

Edited by Sunanda Gupta, Debra Holloway, and Ali Kubba

Oxford Handbook of Perioperative Practice

Suzanne Hughes and Andy Mardell

Oxford Handbook of Critical Care Nursing

Sheila Adam and Sue Osborne

Oxford Handbook of Neuroscience Nursing
Edited by Sue Woodward and Catheryne Waterhouse

Oxford Handbook of General and Adult Nursing

Ann Close and George Castledine

Oxford Handbook of Learning & Intellectual Disability Nursing
Edited by Bob Gates and Owen Barr

Oxford Handbook of

Midwifery

SECOND EDITION

Edited by

Janet Medforth

Senior Midwifery Lecturer and Lead Midwife Educator Faculty of Health and Well Being

Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Susan Battersby

Independent Lecturer/Researcher Infant Feeding, UK

Maggie Evans

Freelance Lecturer and Consultant in Midwifery and Complementary Therapies, UK

Beverley Marsh

Senior Midwifery Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Well Being, Sheffield Hall University, UK

Angela Walker

Lecturer in Midwifery, Contraception and Sexual Health and Independent/Supplementary Nurse/Midwife Prescribing; Clinic Nurse Co-ordinator, Contraception

and Sexual Health Service, Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust, Chesterfield, UK

Previously Senior Midwifery Lecturer, The University of Sheffield (retired)

1

1

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP.

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

© Oxford University Press, 2011

The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First edition published 2006 Second edition published 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction

outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Data available

Typeset by Glyph International, Bangalore, India Printed in China

on acid-free paper through Asia Pacific Offset Limited

ISBN 978–0–19–958467–3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up-to-date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.