StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Family-Centered Maternal and Newborn Care The diversity of the population that hospitals serve nowadays poses a big challenge to health professionals, especially hospital nurses who deal directly with patients. To respond to diverse needs, the Canadian government, in accordance with the latest research and current recommendable practice, has come up with guidelines for family-centered care…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.9% of users find it useful
Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care"

Family-Centered Maternal and Newborn Care The diversity of the population that hospitals serve nowadays poses a big challenge to health professionals, especially hospital nurses who deal directly with patients. To respond to diverse needs, the Canadian government, in accordance with the latest research and current recommendable practice, has come up with guidelines for family-centered care. This paper reviews some of these guidelines for maternal and newborn care. Real-life experiences are cited in order to reveal whether health professionals, especially hospital nurses really comply with these guidelines.

Family-centered maternal and newborn care demands that hospital nurses provide services that are truly responsive to the needs of individual patients. This implies responsiveness to the needs of every individual regardless of race, ethnicity, financial status, and other considerations. If the common practice requires nurses to treat patients equally, family-centered care differs in that it makes room for the specific needs of the patients. For example, an expectant mother of Indian origin (from India) may have beliefs that are unknown to people in the medical field.

Some of these beliefs, according to the article, “Indian Ethnicity and Background” in the Queensland Government Website, include eating cold foods at the onset of pregnancy and warm foods before giving birth. When nurses learn about this fact, they should allow the mother to provide information regarding Indian practices and beliefs about pregnancy instead of them or the doctors giving direct advice to the mother. Listening is the key to knowing practices applicable to the patient. First, nurses may conduct an interview with the patient to obtain the information needed; however, they cannot expect that Indian mothers would readily relay such information due to their shy nature.

Second, nurses should find a way to elicit needed information such as engaging the mother to an interesting conversation that could lead to finding out information about the Indian culture. Third, nurses should be aware of certain practices that differentiate certain ethnicities from the others. Upon knowing such information, nurses should note down the obtained information on the assessment form, and such should serve as a guide to the doctor. Moreover, family-centered care requires that health professionals cater to the needs of individual patients.

This means refraining from generalizing but treating each patient separately from others. My experience in a charity ward of a private hospital is far from being family-centered. There was a struggling mother who had her check up for the first time and pap smear attended by a nurse. Lying on the bed, the mother was shaking and complaining of the pain she was feeling caused by the speculum. Despite her plea to take away the speculum because she could not handle the pain, the nurse insisted to proceed with the pap smear, saying that the procedure would take only a while and that such procedure is not really painful.

This scenario evidently shows the inability of the nurse to provide family-centered care to the mother. Instead of insisting what she wanted, the nurse must have stopped what she was doing, talked calmly to the mother, and explained the benefit of the procedure. In the first place, she should have informed the mother what she would do before inserting the speculum. That way, the mother could have prepared herself for the pain, thus avoiding panic. Moreover, the nurse should have not insisted that the procedure was not painful because she was not in the mother’s situation.

Nurses should respect the feelings of the patient and refrain from dismissing patients’ complaints. Family-centered maternal care for expectant mothers especially those who are first timers should be considerate of the patient’s background. Nurses should assist first-time mothers with carefulness, inform them of what to expect during their pregnancy, and provide them all the necessary information on services they can avail from a variety of service providers in the area. In this regard, attending nurses should be knowledgeable of experiences that pregnant mothers would undergo to carefully guide the patients.

The service also includes recommending services outside the hospital premises as long as such services could help the mother attain a healthy pregnancy because according to the guideline, Level 1 centers should maintain connection with other centers for ‘collaboration, consultation, transport, return transport, information sharing, and education’ (“Labor and Birth, Postpartum, and Newborn Care,” 2010). It is interesting to know that under Chapter 1 of the Family-Centered Maternity and Newborn Care National Guidelines, technology should be used “judiciously and appropriately” (“Labor and Birth, Postpartum, and Newborn Care,” 2010).

This means refraining from conducting an ultrasound procedure without evident need for one. For instance, some doctors would convince mothers to undergo an ultrasound test on the first trimester of the pregnancy just so to find out if the woman is pregnant. If pregnancy signs are already present, there is no need for ultrasound tests at the given time because such could only cause irreversible damages due to radiation. As regards childbirth, family-care service should provide options where the mother would give birth.

Although many doctors would recommend giving birth in hospitals, the guidelines respect the choice of the patients to give birth at home. This is in consideration of some studies commending home-births under strict supervision of health professionals. (Hoff & Schneiderman, 1985; Campbell & MacFarlane, 1986; 1994). Many women of ethnic cultures prefer to give birth at home. Also, not all women prefer to give birth lying down on a bed. For instance, according to the Queensland Government Website, some Indian women prefer to squat or sit down.

To cover the individual needs of these clients, nurses should stay close to the patient during labor, ask the patient where she feels most comfortable, and provide a stool or some space for the mother to stay. The guidelines that the Canadian government has set for family-centered maternal and newborn care do away with traditional practices that overlook the right of the mothers and prioritize the benefits of the hospital, instead. Relevantly, if nurses and other healthcare professionals comply with these guidelines, they could contribute to the beautiful experience of pregnancy and childbirth.

References Campbell, R., & MacFarlane, A. (1986). Place of delivery: A review. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 93(7); 675-83. Campbell, R. MacFarlane. (1984). Where to be born? The debate and the evidence, 2nd ed. Oxford: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. Family-centered maternity and newborn care: national guidelines. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/stages-etapes/childhood-enfance_0-2/fcmc1-eng.php Hoff, G.A., & Schneiderman, L.J. (1985). Having babies at home: Is it safe?

Is it ethical? A review. Hastings Cent Rep 15(6); 19-27. Indian ethnicity and background. (n.d.). Queensland Government Website. Retrieved from http://www.health.qld.gov.au/multicultural/health_workers/Indian-preg-prof.pdf

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/nursing/1451190-family-centred-care
(Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/nursing/1451190-family-centred-care.
“Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/nursing/1451190-family-centred-care.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Family-Centred Maternal and Newborn Care

Importance of Postpartum Care

Melissa Greenblatt Birthing Culture – HSOC 334 December 11, 2013 Importance of Postpartum care Introduction The United States is a highly developed and leading nation in a number of industries such as technology, manufacturing and entertainment; however, when looking at the US birth process, we fail miserably.... hellip; A majority of women in the US receive limited after care following birth, resulting in a more challenging postpartum recovery.... The thesis statement is that: Sufficient postpartum care is vital to a successful post-birth experience for both mother and child....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Substandard Prenatal Care

For children, this means that care needs to begin with conception as the mother and child are cared for through a system of prenatal care.... While prenatal care is vital for the health of the mother and child, it is often met with resistance and relegated as a low priority item that fails to capture the world's attention.... The issue of prenatal care is an issue that has several relevant aspects.... As with other women's issues, such as breast cancer, funding for prenatal care is often diminished by the male dominated power structure....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Neonatal Intensive Care

care should be taken in interpreting glucose values during the transition period of the first 2 to 3 hours after birth, when the plasma glucose concentration may drop to low levels followed by spontaneous improvement.... ctivity 3: Hypoglycaemia in the NewbornPerturbations in glucose metabolism after birth, caused by failure to adapt to the extrauterine environment as a result of either alterations in maternal metabolism or intrinsic metabolic problems in the neonate, often result in hypoglycaemia....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Kangaroo Care Nursing: a Family-Centered Care for Prematurely Born Babies

Moreover, it is care given to low weight infants and is given skin-to-skin by the mother or father of the infant (Thukral, et al.... Conventional neonatal care of infants with low birth weight is quite costly and also requires highly trained personnel.... In this light, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the kangaroo position aspect of Kangaroo mother care.... This is done with special reference to heart rate; respiratory rate; temperature; apneas and bradycardias; oxygen saturation and desaturation events among low birth weight infants following the application of KMC Kangaroo mother care practice started early in the 1970s following a proposal by Klaus and colleagues for skin-to-skin contact for the initial two hours for full-term infants as therapy with the aim of facilitating maternal-infant attachment....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Maternal and Child Health Service in Australia

This paper "maternal and Child Health Service in Australia" discusses how the Australian government cares about the healthcare of the infants and their mothers.... The agenda can further improve the level of maternal and child health (MCH) services, especially in the rural areas by creating service systems that concentrate on the needs of the family, infants and the society at the local level.... maternal and child health is a section of a rural service network that comprises local organizations, intercession services for early childhood, issues of family conflicts and parenting (Costello, Bernice, Adrian and Barbara 1998, p....
4 Pages (1000 words) Case Study

Paradigm of Kangaroo Care in the Preterm Neonate

"Paradigm of Kangaroo care in the Preterm Neonate" paper states that all Preterm Neonates are born extremely immature, with the biological skills and behaviors of a full-term baby, and their healthy growth is dependent on uninterrupted gestation outside the womb.... “Physiology and research provide overwhelming evidence that Kangaroo Mother care is not only safe but superior.... Kangaroo care is defined as “intrahospital maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact” (Bergman 2005)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Family Nurse Practitioners Role

The author of the present research paper "Family Nurse Practitioners Role" highlights that according to the World Health Organization, (WHO) 1998 report, family nurse practitioners handle a broad range of medical services in many different settings where a primary care physician might practice.... hellip; The focus of care is on the family unit specializing in family nursing and in the context of the community.... They provide primary health care services across the client's life spanning from newborns, to infants, to children, to adolescents, to adults, to the elderly and including but not limited to pregnant and postpartum women....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Alcoholic Fetal Syndrome and Psychological Consequences for the Fetus

This continuing, multisystemic effect of alcohol on the newborn whose mother abused alcohol is what contributes to these psychological effects.... The paper "Alcoholic Fetal Syndrome and Psychological Consequences for the Fetus" seeks to provide an analysis of Alcohol Fetal Syndrome in addition to describing its possible psychological effects....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us