Midwives attending childbirth in homes and birth centers seldom encounter emergencies, but when crisis occurs, lives hang in the balance! It is difficult to remain proficient in skills so seldom practiced, yet pregnant women rely on the expertise of the provider in an emergency. Birth Emergency Skills Training: Manual for Out-of-Hospital Midwives is the interface between the world of midwifery and the world of medicine. It carries the reader from the initial steps of intervention though definitive care, balancing a friendly tone and visual appeal with authoritative and clinically useful information. It is loaded with mnemonics and other memory aids, and is richly illustrated with the author's artful drawings and photography.
About the Author
Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg is a certified nurse-midwife and women's health nurse practitioner with a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked as an EMT, urban paramedic, maternity nurse, and certified nurse-midwife. Her midwifery experience includes training with a busy home-birth practice in the heart of Amish country. She has also authored The Midwife's Journal, Birth Log and Memory Book (Birth Guru Publications, 2009), Essentials of Prehospital Maternity Care (Prentice Hall, 2005), and Hoofprints in the Sand: Wild Horses of the Atlantic Coast (Eclipse Press, 2003). She is an artist and photographer, and has illustrated all of her books.
Industry Reviews
"What a terrific educational offering!" - Helen Varney Burst, Author of Varney's Midwifery
"Bonnie Gruenberg has brought together her unique talents as an artist, an experienced Emergency Medical Technician, a Certified Nurse-Midwife and mother in a well organized, concise and creative approach to the identification, evaluation and management of care of the emergent complications of childbearing. Although the treatise is directed to midwives practicing in the out of hospital setting, it is a reference that will help all providers caring for childbearing women regardless of setting as well as all student midwives, nurses and physicians. It provides an excellent review for exams on this subject." - Kitty Ernst, President American College of Nurse-Midwives & Mary Breckinridge Chair of Midwifery, Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing.
"...systematic and clear approach to critical thinking, assessment, diagnosis and intervention when emergencies arise." - Katherine Camacho Carr, PhD, ARNP, CNM, FACNM, Former president of ACNM, Professor & Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies, Seattle University, College of Nursing
"Bonnie Gruenberg's expertise as both a midwife with extensive out of hospital and in-hospital experience combined with her background as a Paramedic gives her insight into the world of both normal and complicated births. The BEST Course modules were interactive and engaging, and got right to the core content very quickly. The accompanying text is a rich resource before, during and after the weekend course." - Kim Perry, CPM, APN, CNM, MSNO
"This book is phenomenal. It offers a concise discussion of obstetrical problems that will serve both out of hospital and in hospital birth practitioners as a resource in problem solving and providing safe care in the event of an obstetrical problem or emergency. The ethical responsibility of the midwife in recognizing abnormal and responding to it is importantly illustrated." - Kathleen Nishida, RN, CNM, MSN
"Birth Emergency Skills Training is a book that should be in every midwife's personal library. If you take the first letter of each word in the title, it spells BEST. The book is a comprehensive Manual for Out-of-Hospital Midwives. It will help you serve women better because you will be armed with an amazing amount of information, right at your fingertips. It is spiced with many mnemonics to help you remember key information. It also includes many lists, tables, illustrations and photos Bonnie is also an accomplished artist! Between the covers you will find information on common complications as well as very obscure ones that hopefully you will never see. It covers complications that occur in pregnancy, birth and postpartum, with help on what to do and when to refer care.
Bonnie has excellent discussions of critical thinking in emergencies, how to manage, co-manage or refer as well as a great epilogue on the herstory of midwifery. Some other chapters include bleeding and hemorrhage, pain, hypertensive disorders, trauma and shock, preterm labor, multiple gestation, malpresentations and shoulder dystocia, fetal heart monitoring and neonatal resuscitation. This book is an excellent resource for all birth practitioners. The only thing I found missing is discussion of the importance of nutrition in correcting and avoiding complications.
If something unusual is occurring, this book will give you the information to explain to your client what is likely going on with her and her baby. When a complication comes up, it is important to remember mom is still having a baby; that is, she having a miracle. The rest of her care needs to be CARE. In any case, this book will give you the information you need to serve mothers and babies well.
As midwives our role is to ascertain normality, or to help get a woman into the normal range with information, knowledge and techniques. BEST has all of these. Doulas and childbirth educators can use this book, too. Often they are the only ones who will explain situations to the women they serve, this book potentially has a larger role among other practitioners." - Jan Tritten, founder and editor-in-chief, Midwifery Today magazine.
