The Care and Management of Normal Labour

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The care and management of normal labour and delivery using the NICE guidelines, Intrapartum Care – Care of healthy women and their babies during childbirth, and local trust policy as a guide to the quality of care given.

Utilising a case study approach this essay will discuss normal labour and birth with reference to the experience of Susan using the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Intrapartum care guidelines, local and national guidelines as a guide to the quality of her care. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) guidelines to protect Susan's right to confidentiality all names have been changed NMC (2008). Susan was experiencing a normal, low-risk pregnancy and consequently had made the decision to birth her baby in a midwifery led birthing unit in Trust A. The Midwife principally caring for Susan will be known as Jenny. Intrapartum care is a vast area to discuss and this essay serves as an overview of the care given to Susan.

For the majority of women, experiencing pregnancy and childbirth is a normal life event that requires minimal medical intervention. These women can choose to be cared for in a midwifery led environment. Department of Health (2004).

Labour itself can be defined as the process whereby the fetus, placenta and membranes are expelled via the birth canal, Stables and Rankin (2010). Taking this further, normal labour constitutes the above process with the addition of “Spontaneous in onset, low risk at the start of labour and remaining so throughout labour and delivery. The infant is born spontaneously in the vertex position between 37 and 42 weeks of gestation. After birth the mother and infant are in good condition.” (World Health Organisation, (WHO) (1999). Normal labour can clinically be divided into three distinct stages, although these three stages merge together with no abrupt boundaries

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