All cultures are concerned with the business of childbirth, so much so that it can never be described as a purely physiological or even psychological event. This volume draws together work from a range of anthropologists and midwives who have found anthropological approaches useful in their work. Using case studies from a variety of cultural settings, the writers explore the centrality of the way time is conceptualized, marked and measured to the ways of perceiving and managing childbirth: how women, midwives and other birth attendants are affected by issues of power and control, but also actively attempt to change established forms of thinking and practice. The stories are engaging as well as critical and invite the reader to think afresh about time, and about reproduction.

This first open-access book on midwifery and sexuality integrates sexual health into the care for the pregnant and postpartum couple. It addresses sexuality and intimacy from an education and prevention perspective instead of just focusing on treating problems, aiming to foster the development of sexual well-being and happy couplehood. Sexuality and intimacy are essential elements in the bonding of the couple and the parents-to-be. That process can be seriously hampered by sexual problems due to mutual misunderstanding, fear and sexual troubles (especially when the natural processes of conceiving, pregnancy and delivery are disturbed). In this phase of life, disruption of intimacy, sexuality and sexual relationship is a significant risk factor for developing couple and family problems. The need for such a book stems from the very limited attention given to this health area in the daily practice of most midwives and related healthcare professionals. In building a close relationship with the couple through frequent, intense, longstanding contact, the midwife acquires a perfect position to address sexuality and intimacy. With 36 authors from 14 countries, the book comprises five modules: 1. Sexuality; 2. Sexual aspects of the various phases of reproduction when things develop without complications; 3. Sexual aspects when those same phases deviate from physiology; 4. Special topics on sexuality relevant to daily midwifery practice; 5. Teaching, learning, skills and competencies with regard to sexuality. This new practical textbook guides healthcare professionals such as midwives, obstetricians, gynaecologists, nurses, general practitioners, pelvic floor therapists, etc., by offering both basic knowledge and skills on sexual health and wellbeing, combined with modern sexological knowledge, like the entirely new topic of sexual aspects of preconception care.

Many midwives also experience powerlessness and loss of control as professionals as a result of these same settings and practices, and those midwives who are themselves CSA survivors bring a particularly acute awareness of this and of the needs of survivor mothers. This unique study sets out to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of these mothers by exploring them alongside the parallel experiences of survivor midwives. It explores the insights and reflections they together bring to midwifery, and the positive results of more collaborative, personal, communicative and ultimately empowering practices for all involved.

Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy: Contested Deliveries explores attempts by church, state, and medical authorities to regulate and professionalize the practice of midwifery in Italy from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. Medical writers in this period devoted countless pages to investigating the secrets of women’s sexuality and the processes of generation. By the eighteenth century, male practitioners in Britain and France were even successfully advancing careers as male midwives. Yet, female midwives continued to manage the vast majority of all early modern births. An examination of developments in Italy, where male practitioners never made successful inroads into childbirth, brings into focus the complex social, religious, and political contexts that shaped the management of reproduction in early modern Europe. Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy argues that new institutional spaces to care for pregnant women and educate midwives in Italy during the eighteenth century were not strictly medical developments but rather socio-political responses both to long standing concerns about honor, shame, and illegitimacy, and contemporary unease about population growth and productivity. In so doing, this book complicates our understanding of such sites, situating them within a longer genealogy of institutional spaces in Italy aimed at regulating sexual morality and protecting female honor. It will be of interest to scholars of the history of medicine, religious history, social history, and Early Modern Italy.

Midwives support women during the reproductive period of their lives. Dimensions of midwifery work include, in addition to the physiological aspect, psychological and spiritual issues. Midwifery activities mean involvement in the most intimate sphere of clients' lives. Women's perceptions of partnership, sexuality, pregnancy and birth are affected by their personal experiences and by the culture they live in. The same factors also influence the midwives' perception of these issues. It is therefore crucial for the midwives to be aware of certain areas of their work that have a sexual inclination and clarify their own eventual prejudices regarding sexuality, since these can affect their provision of holistic, individual and competent care to women and their families. This book deals with different aspects of sexuality that can have an influence on everyday midwifery work. It might also be of interest to different groups of people - midwives in clinical settings, midwifery educators, midwifery students and also other health professionals who manage women during the reproductive period.

"A resource for women and their care providers".

A timely and pioneering work that demonstrates the challenges and rewards of integrating the study of sex and sexuality within archaeology, It draws on locations as varied as the ancient Maya Kingdoms, convict-era Australia and prehistoric Europe.