Aims and Background: Alongside midwifery units (AMUs, also known as hospital or co-located birth ... more Aims and Background: Alongside midwifery units (AMUs, also known as hospital or co-located birth centres) were identified as a novel hybrid organisational form in the Birthplace in England Research Programme. This follow-on study aimed to investigate how AMUs are organised, staffed and managed, the experiences of women, and maternity staff including those who work in AMUs and in adjacent obstetric units. This article focuses on study findings relating to the organisation and
The findings of the Birthplace in England Research Programme showed that midwife-led units are pr... more The findings of the Birthplace in England Research Programme showed that midwife-led units are providing the safest and most cost-effective care for low risk women in England. Since the publication of the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) intrapartum guidelines, there is likely to be even more interest in the development of midwife-led units to promote birth outside obstetric units (OUs) for low-risk women. Professional bodies, policy makers and trusts have focused their energies on alongside midwife-led units (AMUs), which are seen to provide the 'best of both worlds' between home and an OU. Between 2012 and 2013, we carried out a study of the organisation of four AMUs in England and the experiences of midwives and women who worked and birthed there. Learning from their experiences, this article presents five key factors which help make AMUs work.
Estudios de Filosofía Práctica e Historia de las Ideas, 2007
The proliferation of discourses in gender studies. As teacher of Gender Studies, the author obser... more The proliferation of discourses in gender studies. As teacher of Gender Studies, the author observed a gap between the flourishing of sexual and gender diversity, and the persistence in academic courses of binary, biologically-based models. She graphically mapped different approaches including masculinities, the sociology of sex/gender, and Internet studies. The proliferation of discourses proposed by Foucault and Butler has the potential to subvert the hegemony claimed by any current – such as the history of feminism or Women in Development – as obligatory entry-point to this area of study. From a postmodern perspective, the method opens up the field from Women’s Studies to new themes and subjects of Gender Studies.
This article is based on analysis of a series of ethnographic case studies of midwifery units in ... more This article is based on analysis of a series of ethnographic case studies of midwifery units in England. Midwifery units1 are spaces that were developed to provide more home-like and less me dically oriented care for birth that would support physiological processes of labour, women’s comfort and a positive experience of birth for women and their families. They are run by midwives, either on a hospital site alongside an obstetric unit (Alongside Midwifery Unit – AMU) or a freestanding unit away from an obstetric unit (Freestanding Midwifery Unit – FMU). Midwifery units have been designed and intended specifi cally as locations of wellbeing and although the meaning of the term is used very loosely in public discourse, this claim is supported by a large epidemiological study, which found that they provide safe care for babies while reducing use of medical interventions and with bett er health outcomes for the women. Our research indicated that midwifery units function as a protected s...
In Bolivian medical schools and teaching hospitals, bodies for learning come from the poorer sect... more In Bolivian medical schools and teaching hospitals, bodies for learning come from the poorer sectors of society which generate a plentiful supply of corpses compared with other Latin American countries. As part of a study on doctors' abortion discourse, I took hospital stories across the road to the medical school for discussion by students and teachers. Anatomy cubicles, appropriated by students as their “home”, provided an initial scenario for the exercise. Participant observation and action-research with first-year classes alerted me to their concern about the “student-corpse relationship”, a concept I explored using Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Paying attention to the fine detail of dissection practices, I talked to trainee doctors about their passion for organs with and without bodies (Braidotti 1994) and their pursuit of the dead (los muertitos) as study material with commercial value. Anatomy teachers directly linked the daily ritual of re-cognition of the cadaver (reconoc...
Aims and Background: Alongside midwifery units (AMUs, also known as hospital or co-located birth ... more Aims and Background: Alongside midwifery units (AMUs, also known as hospital or co-located birth centres) were identified as a novel hybrid organisational form in the Birthplace in England Research Programme. This follow-on study aimed to investigate how AMUs are organised, staffed and managed, the experiences of women, and maternity staff including those who work in AMUs and in adjacent obstetric units. This article focuses on study findings relating to the organisation and
The findings of the Birthplace in England Research Programme showed that midwife-led units are pr... more The findings of the Birthplace in England Research Programme showed that midwife-led units are providing the safest and most cost-effective care for low risk women in England. Since the publication of the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) intrapartum guidelines, there is likely to be even more interest in the development of midwife-led units to promote birth outside obstetric units (OUs) for low-risk women. Professional bodies, policy makers and trusts have focused their energies on alongside midwife-led units (AMUs), which are seen to provide the 'best of both worlds' between home and an OU. Between 2012 and 2013, we carried out a study of the organisation of four AMUs in England and the experiences of midwives and women who worked and birthed there. Learning from their experiences, this article presents five key factors which help make AMUs work.
Estudios de Filosofía Práctica e Historia de las Ideas, 2007
The proliferation of discourses in gender studies. As teacher of Gender Studies, the author obser... more The proliferation of discourses in gender studies. As teacher of Gender Studies, the author observed a gap between the flourishing of sexual and gender diversity, and the persistence in academic courses of binary, biologically-based models. She graphically mapped different approaches including masculinities, the sociology of sex/gender, and Internet studies. The proliferation of discourses proposed by Foucault and Butler has the potential to subvert the hegemony claimed by any current – such as the history of feminism or Women in Development – as obligatory entry-point to this area of study. From a postmodern perspective, the method opens up the field from Women’s Studies to new themes and subjects of Gender Studies.
This article is based on analysis of a series of ethnographic case studies of midwifery units in ... more This article is based on analysis of a series of ethnographic case studies of midwifery units in England. Midwifery units1 are spaces that were developed to provide more home-like and less me dically oriented care for birth that would support physiological processes of labour, women’s comfort and a positive experience of birth for women and their families. They are run by midwives, either on a hospital site alongside an obstetric unit (Alongside Midwifery Unit – AMU) or a freestanding unit away from an obstetric unit (Freestanding Midwifery Unit – FMU). Midwifery units have been designed and intended specifi cally as locations of wellbeing and although the meaning of the term is used very loosely in public discourse, this claim is supported by a large epidemiological study, which found that they provide safe care for babies while reducing use of medical interventions and with bett er health outcomes for the women. Our research indicated that midwifery units function as a protected s...
In Bolivian medical schools and teaching hospitals, bodies for learning come from the poorer sect... more In Bolivian medical schools and teaching hospitals, bodies for learning come from the poorer sectors of society which generate a plentiful supply of corpses compared with other Latin American countries. As part of a study on doctors' abortion discourse, I took hospital stories across the road to the medical school for discussion by students and teachers. Anatomy cubicles, appropriated by students as their “home”, provided an initial scenario for the exercise. Participant observation and action-research with first-year classes alerted me to their concern about the “student-corpse relationship”, a concept I explored using Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Paying attention to the fine detail of dissection practices, I talked to trainee doctors about their passion for organs with and without bodies (Braidotti 1994) and their pursuit of the dead (los muertitos) as study material with commercial value. Anatomy teachers directly linked the daily ritual of re-cognition of the cadaver (reconoc...
Findings from a Participatory Action-Research study carried out in El Alto, Bolivia in 2008-9. Ti... more Findings from a Participatory Action-Research study carried out in El Alto, Bolivia in 2008-9. Title translates as Unwrapping the package: violence and rights in the City of El Alto. The chapters, authored by individual researchers, show findings from ethnographic data - 68 open interviews - on topics such as men's social mandates, women's bodies, sexual violence, contraception, abortion decisions and practices, and medical care. The study was sponsored by Centro de Promoción de las Mujeres Gregoria Apaza and funded by the Spanish development agency Solidaridad Internacional.
Presentation in the Cambridge University Amnesty International event: My Body, My Rights: Abortio... more Presentation in the Cambridge University Amnesty International event: My Body, My Rights: Abortion in Latin America. Chetwynd Room, King's College Cambridge; 12th February 2016.
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