Bachelor in Science in Midwifery Honours Degree programme
MW2101 -Core Midwifery Practice and Adaptation in Pregnancy (15 ECTS)
Learning Outcomes
Following completion of this module the student should be able to:
Unit 1 Core Midwifery
- On successful completion of this unit midwifery students should be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the role of the midwife in the normal childbirth process;
- Demonstrate the ability to assess the needs of individual women, their babies and their families;
- Begin to demonstrate the ability to assess the needs of individual women with special needs, for example a learning disability, visual, hearing impairment;
- Demonstrate the ability to plan, implement and evaluate care to meet women’s identified individual needs;
- Give core midwifery care to women and their families in all midwifery practice settings;
- Offer advice on healthy behaviour to women planning a pregnancy including advice on good nutrition;
- Discuss antenatal assessment of maternal and fetal well-being;
- Assist partners and other birth support people to carry out their role effectively;
- Provide support and advice on the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding;
- Offer discharge advice to promote well-being for the mother and baby;
- Describe accurately the factual theoretical knowledge underpinning practice;
- Demonstrate that midwifery practice is based on relevant, recent research where available
Unit 2 Adaptation in Pregnancy
- On successful completion of this unit, midwifery students should be able to:
- Identify the determinants of fertility in male and female reproduction;
- Describe fertilisation, implantation and placental development and function;
- Discuss the importance of nutrition and the lifestyle choices on health and optimal reproductive functioning;
- Describe adaptations that occur in all other systems during pregnancy, labour, childbirth, puerperium and lactation;
- Discuss the psychological adaptations which a woman may experience during her pregnancy, labour and childbirth and postnatal experiences;
- Discuss factors that help (hinder) individual women’s adaptation to pregnancy, taking physiological and psychological issues into account;
- Demonstrate accurate and factual knowledge of all anatomical and physiological changes that occur during pregnancy, labour, childbirth, puerperium and lactation;
- Relate confidently the anatomical, physiological and psychological changes that occur during pregnancy, labour, childbirth, puerperium and lactation to the information and education needs of individual women;
- Identify the main developmental stages of the embryo and fetus;
- Outline the normal physiology of the fetus and neonate including adaptations to extrauterine life;
- Describe the psychological adaptations that occur during pregnancy;
- Outline and begin to discuss the range of social issues that impact upon and influence a woman’s or family’s adaptation to pregnancy and parenthood.
Module Learning Aims
Unit 1 Core Midwifery
This unit enables students to acquire the knowledge and skills and approach to practice to be able to
practise in a supervised environment, displaying an ability to rationalise that practice.
Unit 2 Adaptation in Pregnancy
The aim of this unit is to aid midwifery students in understanding the physiological and psychological
adaptations that occur during pregnancy, labour childbirth, puerperium, lactation and the baby’s
adaptation to extra-uterine life.
Recommended Reading List
Essential Reading
- An Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann. (2015) Practice Standards for Midwives. Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann, Dublin.
- Byrom S., Edwards G. & Bick D. (eds) (2010) Essential Midwifery Practice: Postpartum Care. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
- Coad J. & Dunstall M. (2005) Anatomy and Physiology for Midwives, 2nd edn. Mosby, Edinburgh.
- Downe S. (ed.) (2008) Normal Childbirth: Evidence and Debate, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, London.
- Raynor M., Marshall J. & Sullivan, A. (eds.) (2005) Decision Making in Midwifery Practice. Churchill Livingstone, London.
- Henderson C. & Jones K. (eds.) (1997) Essential Midwifery. Mosby, London.
- Macdonald S. & Magill-Cuerden J., (eds.) (2011) Mayes’ Midwifery. A Textbook for Midwives, 14th edn. Balliere Tindall, London.
- Moore K. L. & Persaud T. N. (2007) The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 8th edn. Saunders, London.
- National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2006) Intrapartum Care: Routine Postnatal Care Woman and their Babies. National Institute for Clinical Excellence, London.
- National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2007) Intrapartum Care: Care of healthy Woman and their Babies during Childbirth. National Institute for Clinical Excellence, London.
- National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2008) Antenatal Care: Routine care for the healthy pregnant woman. National Institute for Clinical Excellence, London.
- Raphael-Leff J. (2005) Psychological Processes of Childbearing, 4th edn. Karnac, London.
- Stables D. & Rankin J. (eds) (2010) Physiology in Childbearing: With Anatomy and Related Biosciences, 3rd edn. Bailliere Tindall, Edinburgh.
- Verralls S. (2002) Anatomy and Physiology Applied to Obstetrics, 3rd edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
- Walsh D. & Downe S. (eds) (2010) Essential Midwifery Practice: Intrapartum Care. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
- Wylie L. (2005) Essential Anatomy and Physiology in Maternity Care, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, London.
Additional Reading
- Bick D., Macarthur C. & Winter H. (2009) Postnatal Care: Evidence and Guidelines for Management, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, London.
- Levy V. (1997) Midwifery Practice: Core Topics. MacMillan Press Ltd., Hampshire.
- Mander R. (1998) Pain in Childbearing and its Control. Blackwell Science, Oxford. (new edition due later this year)
- Page L. & McCandish R. (eds.) (2006) The New Midwifery: Science and Sensitivity in Practice, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
- RCM Brown Study Series (2004) Midwifery Clinical Practice: Antenatal Care. Number 5. Royal College of Midwives, London.
- Tiran D. & Mack S. (eds.) (2000) Complementary Therapies for Pregnancy and Childbirth. Harcourt Press, London.
- Tortora, G. J. (2001) Introduction to the Human Body: The Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology, 5th edn. Wiley, Chichester.
Websites
* Additional readings will be given for each unit of learning.