(Ebook) The Labour Ward Handbook by Leroy Edozien ISBN 9781138296633, 9781138296640, 1138296635, 1138296643, 2023000361, 2023000362

(Ebook) The Labour Ward Handbook by Leroy Edozien ISBN 9781138296633, 9781138296640, 1138296635, 1138296643, 2023000361, 2023000362

In high pressure situations such as the delivery suite, clinical practice guidelines can be invaluable.Unfortunately, many guidelines are written in the form of a textbook of theory and practice, not in a stylethat facilitates speedy reference. What busy staff on the shop floor need in the delivery suite is not a tomethat describes underlying theories and research findings, but a handbook that succinctly spells out whatshould be done and when. The Labour Ward Handbook sets out to meet this need. The layout is readerfriendly,with less prose and more bullet points and tick boxes. References have been excluded from themain text and gathered at the end of each section under ‘Further reading’. The tick boxes allow copies ofthe relevant pages to be inserted into the woman’s hospital records, with the relevant boxes ticked, as asupplementary record of the woman’s care during labour.There are other principles which underpin this handbook. The first is a focus on the management ofrisk. Some of the chapters and the appendices specifically address risk issues, and other chapters havewarning boxes or contain elements designed to help minimize human error. Secondly, although (for thesake of simplicity) the chapters are mostly named after clinical conditions and processes, the woman isalways at the centre of care – it is the individual woman rather than the condition that should be the focus.Thirdly, the book is addressed to both doctors and midwives, emphasizing the team approach. Also, normaland abnormal labour are regarded as a continuum.Clinical practice constantly changes as new evidence emerges, and every effort has been made tokeep this third edition of The Labour Ward Handbook as up to date as possible. I hope that it will facilitatean evidence-based but also holistic approach to care in labour.