A client / family centred maternity care study on Madam Adu Elizabeth

Abstract

A family centered maternity care is the sum total and systematic care given to a pregnant woman and her family during pregnancy, labour and puerperium, taking into consideration their individual problems. The family centered care study is an academic work that gives the student midwife the greatest opportunity to practise all the knowledge and skills acquired during the period of training in providing comprehensive and quality nursing care to client and family. This care is extended to the community in which the client lives. The care study also serves as a learning tool for the student to collect relevant data, analyse the data, plan and implement nursing interventions and evaluate the care to ascertain whether set goals have been achieved or not. The study offers new ways of providing care for women and their families that integrate during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum by helping the families make informed choices for their care. The study will also help the student midwife to give the necessary supervision, care, and advice to women during pregnancy, labour and postpartum including preventable measures and detection of abnormal conditions on both mother and the newborn that was learnt in class. Some of the current trends in midwifery is the introduction of partograph which helps in monitoring labour and to see when labour is prolonged so that possible interventions can be done. Another current trend is technological advancement, for example foetal monitoring has progressed from the use of fetoscope to electronic foetal monitors. In addition, we also have family centered care as a current trend in midwifery, thus integration and bonding take high priority and much anticipatory counselling is offered. ii The study consists of all information of the client and the family which enables the student to recognize the client as an individual who has a specific problem and needs to render good nursing care. The family centered maternity care study further forms part of the requirement by the Nurses and Midwives Council of Ghana in awarding a diploma certificate at the end of program