Woman-Centered Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth provides lay women as well as professionals, 
obstetricians, midwives and general care physicians 
with valuable information on the normal process 
of pregnancy and childbirth. The text incorporates 
dozens of clinical vignettes (patient stories) 
describing how a varied group of clinicians 
approach the specifics of woman-centered care. 

They work with many women from a variety of 
social, cultural, and economic situations who face 
both normal situations and challenges from the 
inception of their pregnancies onwards.

The authors justify their title, Woman-Centered 
care as a necessary reaction, first, to technology 
centered care where the pressure of modern 
technology which forces institutions to use more 
machines to reduce labour costs. Second, the 
title is also in reaction to physician controlled 
care in pregnancy and child birth and their 
preoccupation with malpractice suits leading to a 
leap in interventions. For those clinicians who were 
trained without all these gadgets and trends these 
are understandably good arguments.

Family-centered care is another approach to 
labour and delivery which happens to a large extent 
in Asian and Middle Eastern countries, but is not 
possible for women who are single, lesbian, or 
drug users etc, in a western population. In family-
centered care, men can exert emotional control 
over the lives of women and children and one of 
the examples being a husband denying a woman an 
epidural anesthaesia for pain relief.

The authors also present how care is becoming 
fetal-centered with the advancing technology of 
ultrasound and fetal monitoring in labour and 
how fetocentric care can obscure the needs of the 
pregnant woman.

This book is written to promote the practice of 
maternity care in the context of the woman- where 
she comes from, where her partner comes from and 

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BOOK REVIEW

Woman-Centered Care in Pregnancy 
and Childbirth

Editors: Sara G. Shields and Lucy M. Candib
Publisher: Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford & New York, 2010

ISBN: 978-184619-1619-9
Orders: www.radcliffe-oxford.com

SQU Med J, May 2011, Vol. 11, Iss. 2, pp. 291-292, Epub. 15th May 11
Submitted - 9th Feb 11



Woman-Centered Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth

292 | SQU Medical Journal, May 2011, Volume 11, Issue 2

how the baby fits into that context. There are a lot 
of case vignettes and narratives that makes the book 
interesting to read. 

The authors have divided the book into seven 
sections. Part one addresses the magnitude of the 
problem. Other six chapters detail the normal 
process of pregnancy and its problems, women 
experiencing miscarriage, fetal anomalies, preterm 
labour, cesarean sections, etc. There are also 
chapters on the cultural issues that arise when 
caring for immigrant women, on prevention and 
health promotion and on the importance of woman 
centeredness in family planning and contraception.

The final chapter focuses on team work and wise 
stewardship of resources and the worldwide increase 
in cesarean sections and the efforts to reverse it. 
The goal of the authors is to combine practical, 
woman-centered, evidence-based perspectives 
that trainees and fully-fledged clinicians can apply 

in clinical practice in order to strengthen the 
healing relationship, make it easier to provide good 
pregnancy and child birth care and lead to women’s 
self empowerment. 

On the whole, this book is a very interesting read 
for patients, physicians and anyone interested in the 
care of women without the overuse of technology. It 
is a heavy volume to carry, but nevertheless worth 
reading.

r e v i e w e r s

Rahma Al-Mabslai 
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman

Vaidyanathan Gowri
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman