POSTNATAL CARE

Postnatal care

Introduction

In order to raise the child in a better way, it is imperative for the mother to be in the excellent state of health. Physical health and mental wellbeing is so important for a mother. This health concern issues become more important during pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. A woman needs to take good care during pregnancy and after giving birth to the baby. This paper revolves around one of the related phenomena i.e. health care of postnatal women. This paper explores various facets of this issue.

Research question

What measures are needed to improve staff's behavior in providing health education advice and support for postnatal women in Newham University Hospital?

Reasons for choosing this topic

The field of nursing and medicine has a plethora of literature related to health care of a woman during the period of pregnancy but, there is a dearth of material related to woman's health after the childbirth. According to William: “Pregnancy and birth are well documented, as is every aspect of babies from feeding of development; but mothers, the mother's well being, and the mothers emotional and physical health are not. Women are pregnant for nine months, give birth in hours, but are mothers for life. I felt the focus. .. to be all wrong. The really big changes happen after birth not before” (William 1994, 20) Although, there are a number of books, magazines, articles written on the topic of impact of becoming a mother but research about opinion of women related to postnatal services are missing. (Alexander 1990 14) A research that was conducted in past revealed that in the department of maternity care, postnatal care is the area that was ranked as least satisfactory by the women in the postnatal period. (Audit commission 1997, 38)

This is a significant finding and shows that poor postnatal care can affect the health of woman also for child. For the proper development and growth of the child, it is indispensible for a woman to be in the positive state of both physical and mental health. Anderson and Podkolinski on the basis of their research argues that there is various health related problems that a woman can suffer from after giving birth to the baby but postnatal care is the area that is weak in diagnosis, treatment and cure of this various health related problems. (Anderson & Podkolinski 2000, 19)

In order to improve behavior of the staff in providing guidance related to the health of mother and her child hospitals, maternity centers, healthcare facilities and clinical networks should coordinate with the board of healthcare professionals, commissioners, managers and service users and careers. These entities can provide deep insight to the related topic and they can lend a hand in improving the process of provision of healthcare education. (Reference guide NHS 2007, 5)

Period of postnatal is very vital for every mother. This is the period when a mother herself suffers from turbulence and in addition to this, she has to take care of ...