In this book, a team of international contributors examine bodies, leakage and boundaries, illuminating the contradictions and dilemmas in women’s healthcare.

Using the concept of pollution, this book highlights how women and health issues are categorised, and health workers and women are confined to roles and places defined as socially appropriate. The book explores in-depth current and historical practices, such as:

• childbirth and midwifery practice
• policies and social practices around breastfeeding
• gynaecological nursing, female...

Covering completely new topics areas, including the effects of emotional labour, poverty and health policy, the new edition of this ground-breaking text brings together classic and current research to establish key tenets for maternity care within hospital and home. It remains the definitive guide to the complex area of midwife-mother relations.

Informed choice in maternity care is government policy and is therefore an important issue in the education of midwives and obstetricians. This book brings together key research in the area and provides a forum for the concerns of all involved. Contributors are drawn from a wide range of perspectives, including service users, lay support groups, midwives, social scientists, obstetricians, nursing and law. Informed Choice in Maternity Care is timely, topical and covers a number of current debates.