Dear All

Our team has been studying the birth environment for some time and have a number of articles published in this area which I have listed below. These may be useful for students studying the practice environment of midwives. We have recently been awarded a large Australian Research Council grant to continue this research and to gain the perspectives of both women and midwives/doctors in different types of birth environments. We have also developed an hypothesis around safe satisfying birth that includes consideration of the birth environment and its impact on everyone within it,  that researchers might like to consider when designing studies in this area.

Kind regards

Maralyn

Maralyn Foureur

Professor of Midwifery

Northern Sydney Central Coast Health & University of Technology Sydney

Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health

PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia

Tel: 0448 448 735

Books and book chapters

1.      Fahy K, Foureur M, Hastie C. (Eds) Birth Territory and Midwifery Guardianship. 2008. Elsevier, UK.

2.      Fahy K, Parrat J, Hastie C, Foureur M (2010) “Birth Territory: A Theory for Midwifery Practice” in Bryar R (Ed) Theory for Midwifery Practice 2^nd Edition. Palgrave MacMillan Press, Oxford (in press 2010).

3.      Lepori B, Foureur M, Hastie C. “Mindbodyspirit Architecture”, chapter 7. In Fahy K, Foureur M, Hastie C. (Eds) Birth Territory and Midwifery Guardianship. 2008. Elsevier, UK.

4.      Foureur M. “Creating Birth Space to Enable Undisturbed Birth”, chapter 5 p 57-75. In Fahy K, Foureur M, Hastie C. (Eds) Birth Territory and Midwifery Guardianship. 2008. Elsevier, UK.

5.      Foureur M & Hunter M. “The Place of Birth”, chapter 6, p94-111 in Pairman S, Pincombe J, Thorogood C, Tracy S. (Eds). . The Midwifery Textbook. 1^st Australian and New Zealand Edition. 2006. Elsevier, Aus.

 Refereed journal articles

1. Sheehy A, Foureur M, Catling-Paull C, Homer CSE. Examining the content validity of the Birthing Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool (BUDSET) within a woman-centred framework. Accepted in Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health (30 December 2010).
2. Foureur, M., Davis, D., Fenwick, J, Leap, N. Iedema, R., Forbes, I. & Homer, C. (2010). The relationship between birth unit design and safe, satisfying birth: Developing a hypothetical model. Midwifery: An International Journal 26(5): 520-525.

3.      Foureur M, Leap N, Davis D, Forbes I, Homer C. (2010) Developing the birth unit design spatial evaluation tool (BUDSET) in Australia – a qualitative study. Health Environments Research & Design Journal. 3(4):43-57.

4.      Foureur M, Leap N, Davis D, Forbes I, Homer C. (2011) Testing the birth unit design spatial evaluation tool (BUDSET). Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 4(2):22-41.

5.      Foureur M. Der Ideal Kreibsaal [The ideal birthplace] (2008) Hebammen Zeitschrift [German Midwives Journal] 2008:6;10-12.

6.      Forbes I, Homer C, Foureur M, Leap N. (2008) Birthing Unit Design: Researching New Principles. World Health Design. October 2008:48-53

Recent Conference presentation

Davis D., Foureur M., Homer, C., Leap, N., Forbes I. (2010). Designing better birthing spaces. The Place of Birth. The Canadian Association of Midwives 10th AGM, Conference & Exhibit. October 6-8, 2010, Edmonton Alberta, Canada