Bachelor in Science in Midwifery Honours Degree programme

MW2204 -Birth, Motherhood and Midwifery: Contexts and Knowledges (5 ECTS)

Critically analyse the principal competing ideologies of childbirth;
Critically analyse the scope of the critical debate about who controls childbirth;
Critically discuss women’s expressed needs about childbirth in contemporary Irish society;
Critically discuss how systems of care in birth have evolved in other cultures and what we can learn from these systems;
Critically analyse the social and institutional support exists for the new mother in contemporary Ireland.

The aim of this module is to explore the contexts of birth and motherhood for women in contemporary
Ireland and childbirth in other cultures.

Bourgeault I. L., Benoit C. & Davis-Floyd, R. (2004) Reconceiving Midwifery. Magill Queens University Press, Montreal.
Devries R., Benoit C., Van Teijlingen E.R. & Wrede S. (2001) Birth by Design: Pregnancy, Maternity Care, and Midwifery in North America and Europe. Routledge, New York.
Ginsburg F. & Rapp R. (1995) Conceiving the New World: The Global Politics of Reproduction. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Hunter B. & Deery R. (2008) Emotions in Midwifery and Reproduction. Palgrave and Macmillan, London.
Jordan B. (1993) Birth in Four Cultures. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Ill.
Kirkham M. (ed.) (2004) Informed Choice in Maternity Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Kirkham M. (ed.) (2000) The Midwife-Mother Relationship Palgrave Macmillan, London
Kitzinger S. (2006) Birth Crisis. Routledge, London.
Kitzinger S. (2005) The Politics of Birth. Elsevier Press, Edinburgh.
Mander R. (2004) Men and Maternity. Routledge, London. http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=28242&loc=&srch=undefined&src=0
Murphy-Lawless J. (1998) Birth and Death: A History of Obstetric Thinking. Cork University Press, Cork.

* Additional readings will be given for each unit of learning.