Nursing Through Stages of Labor Essay
- Length: 8 pages
- Sources: 8
- Subject: Health - Nursing
- Type: Essay
- Paper: #31597689
- Related Topic: Nurse To Patient Ratio, Critical Care Nursing, Child Labor
Excerpt from Essay :
However, women also receive labor support even when its starts at a later stage in labor, in settings with companions of their choice, and settings with routine epidural. The supportive care provided to women during labor and birth through the one-to-one nursing includes various processes like provision of physical comfort and information and emotional support. The other processes include assisting women to communicate to caregivers and engaging members of their family as desired by the woman.As an important part of one-to-one nursing during stages of labor and delivery, continuous support during childbirth enhances the normal labor processes while lessening the use of obstetric interventions. Therefore, this kind of support is an exceptional element of maternity care that provides well-established incentives and has no identified disadvantages.
Enhancement of Spontaneous Vaginal Birth:
Since continuous one-to-one nursing support during childbirth enables women to avoid analgesia or anesthesia and cesarean surgery, it's vital in promoting spontaneous vaginal birth. It has been found that one-to-one nursing during childbirth promotes spontaneous childbirth by enabling women to avoid instrumental child delivery. According to research, women who receive continuous labor support through one-to-one nursing tend to experience slightly shorter labor periods. Therefore, this kind of nursing support is not only cost-effective but it's also a safe intervention procedure that is beneficial to women.
One-to-one nursing during childbirth is recommended because it ensures that all the necessary measures are established for birth environments to be non-stressful and empowering (Hodnett et. al., 2007). This kind of support is also required in the birth environments because it promotes privacy, communicate respect to the women, and ensure that routine surgical or medical intervention procedures are not a common characteristic in these environments unless they are necessary and have clearly stated benefits.
Limited Access to Trained Doulas:
In the United States, the responsibility of providing support to childbearing or laboring women left to trained doulas and other professionals. Currently, childbearing women have limited access to these trained doulas in most countries across the globe. In areas where the trained doulas are available, the costs of their services are usually covered by families of the laboring woman resulting in barriers to access their services. Consequently, encouraging women to invite companions to be present during birth to assume the role of the trained doulas has been suggested as a means of increasing one-to-one continuous labor support globally.
However, the promotion of labor companionship through the involvement of family members to support the laboring women is ineffective in promoting positive birth experiences. This is largely because most of these companions are in-competent to handle the support procedures to women during the stages of labor and delivery. Therefore, one-to-one nursing is an effective means of providing support during childbirth since competent caregivers are involved in all the procedures. Childbearing women are able to have positive birth experiences because of the positive relationships they have established with the nurses and the effective support they receive from them.
Helps in Dealing with Reality of the Labor Ward:
As compared to other types of support to childbearing women, one-to-one nursing through the stages of labor and delivery helps women in dealing with the reality of the labor ward. This is mainly because nurses are better equipped to know when to delay or provide epidural analgesia rather than the mere decision to use them. Nurses use slightly less invasive approaches first before settling for an early epidural in order to promote positive birth experiences (Klein, 2011). Consequently, nurses avoid exposing the childbearing woman to other intervention approaches that may eventually result in several negative outcomes and a possible cesarean section. As the nurses help laboring women to avoid such measures that could contribute to extra problems either immediately or at a later stage, they help the women to have positive experiences during childbirth. In situations where the nurses are required to use epidurals, they usually provide information of the direct consequences of epidural analgesia to the childbearing woman. One-to-one nursing in the stages of labor and delivery is vital in Canada because many women approaching the first birth in this country are not aware that epidural analgesia interferes with labor.
Provision of Coping Techniques:
Since one-to-one nursing during childbirth is the presence of a certified nurse midwife during labor and delivery to attend to the physical and emotional needs of the childbearing woman, it's recommended because it provides relaxation and coping techniques to the woman. The improvement of maternity care across the globe should incorporate the use of nurse-midwives in all the childbearing processes, especially during labor and delivery, since they are essential parts of the provision of family-centered care. These nurses provide relaxation and coping mechanisms to the woman through focusing on patient teaching and health promotion.
Furthermore, a woman's positive birth experience is enhanced as the nurse gives support to the expectant father, contacts the anesthesiologist when necessary, and provides information about labor progress to the unit staff (Gagnon, Waghorn & Covell, 1997).
Conclusion:
The provision of support to childbearing women during the process of labor and delivery is critical in enhancing the women's birth experiences. One-to-one nursing has been recommended as an effective way of enhancing these experiences due to its huge benefits.
References:
Barrett, S.J. & Stark, M.A. (2010). Factors Associated With Labor Support Behaviors of Nurses.
Journal of Perinatal Education, 19(1), 12-18. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2820357/
"Chapter 5 -- Care During Labour and Birth." (n.d.). Family-Centered Maternity and Newborn
Care: National Guidelines. Retrieved from Public Health Agency of Canada website: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/publications/fcm-smp/fcmc-smpf-05-eng.php#careduring
Gagnon, a.J., Waghorn, K. & Covell, C. (1997, June). A Randomized Trial of One-to-One
Nurse Support of Women in Labor. Birth, 24(2), 71-77. Retrieved from http://www.cebp.nl/vault_public/filesystem/?ID=2062
Hodnett, et. al. (2007). Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth (Review). Retrieved
March 29, 2012, from http://www.childbirthconnection.org/pdfs/continuous_support.pdf
Klein, M.C. (2011, February 7). Epidural Analgesia for Pain Management: The Benefits and Risks -- Chapter in Upcoming Book. Retrieved from the College of Family Physicians of Canada website: http://www2.cfpc.ca/local/user/files/%7B2A3B8747-606E-46C9-9CE4-818433B61297%7D/Epidural%20chapter%20February%207th%202011.pdf
Masciale, E. (n.d.). Continuous Labor Support Offers Big Benefits to Mothers & Babies, Has No
Known Downsides. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.headfirstdoulas.net/user_files/pdf/About%20doulas%20-%20research%20article.pdf
Montgomery, K.S. (2001). Maternal-Newborn Nursing: Thirteen Challenges That Influence
Excellence in Practice. Journal of Perinatal Education, 10(1), 31-40. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595052/
Sosa et. al. (2011, July 9). What is Meant by One-to-One Support in Labor: Analyzing the Concept. Midwifery, 1-2. Retrieved from www.mendeley.com/research/meant-onetoone-support-labour-analysing-concept/#page-1
