New Thinking on Improving Maternity Care: International Perspectives

New Thinking on Improving Maternity Care is the result of years of comparative international research, with the goal of finding and generating the best possible evidence across a range of childbirth practices, contexts, and issues in Europe. There is a general shift towards a more risk-averse approach to childbirth globally, but this is occurring at different rates in population attitudes and in use of childbirth technologies, in different countries. The drivers to such changes can also vary from country to country, but the clinical, social and economic consequences are similar.

This book offers a new set of theories to help explain the nature of maternity care provision across Europe and beyond, including complexity theory, salutogenesis, and new concepts of organisational culture. The aim of the book is to examine the nature of these theories, and to apply them to a range of practical situations in a number of different countries. A fascinating book, that will become required reading for European maternity professionals.

Sarah is Associate Professor and Reader in Midwifery at London South Bank University, London. Sarah has contributed journal articles and book chapters on issues within the sociology of reproduction and childbirth. Her PhD focused on gender identity and explored the reproductive identities and experiences of midwives and mothers. Current research areas: lesbian motherhood, perinatal mental health and migration and midwifery, especially migrant midwives. 

Lucy is a Reader in Bioethics and Social Science at the University of Liverpool. She has taught healthcare ethics to medical students and healthcare professionals for a number of years. Her research focuses on the social and ethical aspects of healthcare decision-making, policy and regulation, with a particular interest in empirical ethics and socio-legal approaches. She has carried out research on pregnancy and childbirth, reproductive technologies (gamete and embryo donation); research ethics (clinical trials and public involvement and cross-cultural issues in consent); the organisation and funding of healthcare provision; and the use of evidence in practice and policy. She has held visiting fellowships at the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Science and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge and the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at the University of Hong Kong.

Marie-Clare is a research assistant in the Research in Childbirth and Health Unit (ReaCH) at the University of Central Lancashire. Her background is in history and women's studies. Her research interests are migrant women's experiences of maternity care and childbirth in the UK and Europe, social support in maternity care and historical and socio-cultural perspectives on women's health, particularly menopause. Her current research is focused on the experiences of asylum seeking and refugee women and social support for marginalised women.

Marie is a Professor in Health Care Science specialising in reproductive and perinatal health at the University of Gothenburg (UGOT), Sweden, including working as a clinical midwife at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Marie is the leader of the childbirth research group at UGOT Institute of Health Care Science. She has led and is leading several research projects with a variety of research designs. Marie has published around 75 scientific papers, several book chapters and a few books. Major research areas: midwifery model of care; labour management; diabetes and pregnancy/childbirth.

Soo is a Professor of Midwifery Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK (https://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/professor_soo_downe.php). Her specific focus is the normal physiology of childbirth, including the processes which can maximise normal birth. She is the Chair of the International Birth Research and Action Association (IBRAA) which builds on the EU funded BIRTH network, involving over 120 scientists and activists in 33 countries. She has worked on WHO guidelines, and has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers and books. She  was awarded an OBE in 2011.