Hi, glad to hear the debate alive and kicking!
Regarding statistics on augmentation of labour, Sweden has a lot of
statistics but not all are readily available to the general public.
You could try browsing around a very extensive site at the Ministry of
health and welfare (text in English is available):
www.sos.se
There is a national childbirth register but how you could get access to that
I can't say.
Rachel, your thoughts on the effects of the labour ward environment are very
pertinent. Have a look at page 203 in the June number of MIDIRS. An
interesting article on undisturbed birth.
"Fear clinics" are a relatively common commodity in Sweden. Midwives
perceived a need for these clinics when the request for elective CS began to
rocket. I could give you a contact, Belinda, if you mail directly to me. An
evaluation of one such clinic was published last year:
Ryding E-L., Persson Å., Onell C. & Kvist L. 2003. An evaluation of
midwives' counseling of pregnant women in fear of childbirth. Acta Obstet et
Gynaecol 82: 10-17.
Rachel, I can also give you a contact to a doctoral student who is
developing an instrument to measure whether we midwives work according to
WHOs "Care in normal birth".
Keep up the good work everyone!
Linda Kvist
Sweden.
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