Book Review

Birth Centres A Social Model for Maternity Care Mavis Kirkham (Ed)

Return to Birth Centres Also by Mavis Kirkham (Ed) Book: Exploring the Dirty Side of Women's Health

Book Description: It is both research based and anecdotal, a collection of papers from various authors, it is broadly split into three parts, Birth Centres in England the Edgeware Birth Centre specifically and Birth Centres in the wider world.

Book Format: the book is paperback large sized but just smaller than A4.

Outline of Contents: There are several chapters listed under the various Parts mentioned above, the chapters all have clear sub headings so you can find specific areas of interest relatively quickly. There are no pictures as such but quite a few tables with specific data and several flow charts along the way. There is a significant amount of detail.

Overall I am quite positive about this book, it is very thorough, at times it is somewhat wordy but it has done a brilliant job of bringing the issues of Birth Centres to the fore. This is a valuable book for midwives, consumers and Health Department personnel.

* Midwives for those who either work or want or just have an interest in Birth Centres.

* Consumers, especially who are making moves to either establish Birth Centres or even to keep them operating.

* Health Department Personnel, there is enough evidence in this text to support the practical aspect of increasing the number of Birth Centres not only for reasons of economy but also because of the satisfaction from those who both work and utilise Birth Centres.

The UK experience is at times quite different to what happens here in Australia but I believe there is still value in learning from their experiences. The global perspective of what is happening is fascinating in highlighting the marked differences of maternity services across many countries. The philosophy of Birth Centres comes through loud and clear. Here in Australia, the Birth Centre issue, I believe has become somewhat stale with little movement, this book could give the impetus to get things fired up, especially as smaller units continue to be threatened with closure.

This book basically tells it as it is, for those wanting to develop the Birth Centre model to their locality there is much information that can be sourced in this book, in reality there is limited information available on Birth Centres so this is an excellent start, certainly would appear to be gaining momentum in the UK hopefully the same will occur across the globe.

Pete Malavisi
Midwife