PREGNANCY: PLANNING
Natal is Latin for something to do with birth. (It also refers to buttocks in the same language. Odd, isn’t it?) Ante- means before, and post- means after. Peri-means around, and neo- means new. This is how a pregnant woman can undergo antenatal care, until the perinatal period, when she delivers a neonate, and then has postnatal care.
Working out where all of this is going to take place, and who is to be involved is usually the next step after a positive pregnancy test.
“There are now many ‘birthing options’ from which women can choose. Australia, like many developed countries, has included pregnancy care in medical care. At this point in time, the majority of pregnant women in Australia will have a doctor involved to some degree in their care, and deliver their baby in a hospital.
Historically it was midwives (specially trained nurses, or experienced women without formal nursing training), who looked after women in pregnancy, and deliveries took place in the home. There was little organized antenatal care, and doctors became involved only if there was a problem. Problems were not that uncommon, and the death rates of mothers and babies were fairly high. Over many years, in an attempt to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and babies, doctors started monitoring pregnancies, looking out for problems which could be avoided or treated. Deliveries were sometimes assisted, with instruments, or operations.
The trend continued, and doctors became much more involved with not only problem pregnancies, but also routine, normal ones, which were also delivered in hospitals. With that came also a move against the interventions and medical treatment of women, most of whom were going to have normal pregnancies. The debate still rages, and out of it all we may be heading towards a situation where women have much greater choice than ever before, and the security of very low death rates for mothers and babies.
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