Authors

  1. Section Editor(s): Howard, Elisabeth D. PhD, CNM, FACNM
  2. Perinatal Guest Editors
  3. Low, Lisa Kane PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN
  4. Perinatal Guest Editors
  5. Gregory, Katherine E. PhD, RN
  6. Neonatal Editor

Article Content

The 34:1 issue for the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing (JPNN) takes an in-depth look into key aspects of the labor and birth experience. Worldwide, the challenges to the maternity care system in terms what has been dubbed in a Lancet (2016) series on maternity systems worldwide as issues of "too much too soon"-describing the overmedicalization of normal birth and "too little, too late"-portraying care with inadequate resources. It is timely to rethink the way in which the majority of care is delivered to childbearing families, examining both systems and teams to encourage not just safety, but optimal experiences of care, to envision a maternity care system in which every person has equitable and positive outcomes. Globally recognized maternity design expert and current Harvard professor and obstetrician Neel Shah recently stated "safety during childbirth is the floor of what people deserve. What we should all really be aiming for is the ceiling; care that is not just safe, but also supportive and empowering." Importantly, this issue takes a deeper dive into some central components of perinatal care: comfort, intermittent auscultation, the process of induction of labor, water birth, and birth centers as an underutilized model of care with both safe and equitable outcomes. The perinatal section includes 2 qualitative and 2 quantitative research studies that address these key aspects of care of childbearing families that are outstanding contributions to the literature.

 

Hall's study on comfort in labor entitled "Comfort in Labor: Like Being Able to Exhale" is a unique study employing phenomenology to explore comfort in labor. The study provides a rich and powerful understanding of what the state of comfort is and what it means and what provides comfort to women in labor.

 

Chuey's study entitled "Maternity Providers' Perspectives on Barriers to Utilization of Intermittent Fetal Monitoring: A Qualitative Study" is a qualitative analysis of the barriers and facilitators to intermittent auscultation. This illuminates the challenges of fully integrating this evidence-based approach to fetal assessment during labor into the team.

 

Jolles et al's quantitative study entitled "Improving the Experience of Care: Results of the American Association of Birth Centers Strong Start Client Experience of Care Registry Pilot Program, 2015-2016 of Birth Center" uses a large data set to describe a model of care in which patient outcomes are equitable, mitigating disparities in experience.

 

An additional contribution from the Strong Start study team is an important contribution on the "The experience of land and water birth in the American Association of Birth Centers perinatal data registry" focused on an analysis of water birth outcomes in this setting.

 

The perinatal expert column invites the reader to consider maternity costs of care, and the fuller implementation of doulas on the care team as a public health intervention and evidence-based addition to the birth and postpartum experience.

 

In summary, taken together the manuscripts in this issue provide insights and opportunity to improve the choices available to families for their maternity care and highlight key features of the experience, like comfort, where all members of the maternity care team can come together to support optimal outcomes.

 

In this issue of the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, the articles we feature in the neonatal section relevant to intrapartum care and the birth experience range from pain management to breastfeeding and the importance of maternal milk on neurobehavioral outcomes. Richardson and colleagues have provided an article on parent-targeted education regarding infant pain management, while Cooper and colleagues write about the associations between neonatal admission and maternal pain. Dr Pineda has written about the relationships between maternal milk and early neurobehavioral outcomes in preterm infants. We also have an article from Professor Kucukoglu on the association of kangaroo care during the early postpartum period on breastfeeding outcomes and maternal milk supply. Professor Gerhardsson has written about the adaptation process that occurs between a mother and her late preterm infant when breastfeeding. Finally, we have published an article on-line reporting on the effect of the Helping Babies Breathe Training Program among Jordanian midwives. These contributions include a diversity of topics and perspectives on intrapartum care for mothers and newborns, representing several different care settings across the world. As always, I want to thank all of our columnists for providing unique insights on nursing practice and care of newborns and their families.

 

Please reach out to us with any thoughts or suggestions for the journal. If you or a colleague might be interested in participating in the peer-review process for the journal, please contact us, as we are currently growing our panel of reviewers. We have several great topic areas planned for forthcoming issues of the journal and we welcome your submissions.

 

-Elisabeth D. Howard, PhD, CNM, FACNM

 

-Lisa Kane Low, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN

 

Perinatal Guest Editors

 

-Katherine E. Gregory, PhD, RN

 

Neonatal Editor