Complex Social Issues and the Perinatal Woman

Pursuing a multidisciplinary approach, this book demonstrates the best quality care for pregnant women and new mothers who may have complex social needs. This book will benefit all health and social care professionals working in women’s health, while also providing a valuable reference guide for maternity departments. The latest Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) demonstrates the consequences that having multiple complexities has and the need to ensure that susceptible groups receive personalised, appropriate care and meeting the needs of all women is urgent and essential. This book brings together a blend of health and social care professionals, experts by experience and the charity third sector. All have expertise in caring for and supporting perinatal women with issues that may affect their health and the type of care they require. Through our collective writing, we provide a paradigm for partnership working and hope to have strengthened voices by highlighting women’s experiences and the importance of third sector partnerships, working in tandem with women who are experts by experiences and bringing health professionals together. In combination with recommendations from specialists in the field, we have offered a unique mix of compassion and evidence-based guidance. From substance abuse, domestic violence and HIV to experiences of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minorities, homelessness, women seeking asylum and women in prison, we have addressed a range of current issues and provided essential information and opportunities to reflect. Each chapter invites the reader to step into the shoes of the perinatal woman. Through our collective writing, we provide a paradigm for partnership working and hope to have strengthened voices by highlighting diverse experiences. We have looked at how using a trauma informed approach can be applied universally to care for all women and learn from charities such as Birth Companions, the 4M project and the Salamander Trust, how different approaches may directly impact women’s care in a positive and holistic way. An overarching aim of our book has been to find ways to deliver multi-agency continuity of care, whilst being aware of bias, professional responsibilities and an understanding how we can take a holistic approach - crucial for attaining excellence in 21st century maternity care provision.

• Pregnancy
• Complex social issues
• Mental health
• Post-natal
• Substance abuse
• Psycho-social
• Perinatal
• Prisoner pregnancy
• Maternal and Child Health

• Department of Allied Health and Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK

  Laura Abbott

Dr Laura Abbott is a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at The University of Hertfordshire, a Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Laura qualified as a nurse in 1993 and a midwife in 2000, practising as an Independent Midwife for several years. Laura’s doctorate examined the experiences of pregnant women in prison: The Incarcerated Pregnancy: An Ethnographic Study of Perinatal Women in English Prisons. Laura volunteers with the charity Birth Companions and co-authored The Birth Charter for pregnant women in England and Wales published by Birth Companions in May 2016. In September 2020 Laura was awarded the Mildred Blaxter Post-Doctoral Fellowship from The Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness to continue with her research. She has been publicly recognised as one of the Nation’s lifesavers from ‘Made at Uni’ and was the winner of the Research Success of the Year 2020 Vice Chancellor award. Laura has contributed to the review of operational policy for prison staff managing and caring for all women experiencing pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units (MBUs), and maternal separation in prison. Laura hopes to continue to highlight the issues facing women, campaigning for the recommendations arising from her research to be actioned, meaning change on the ground for pregnant women and new mothers in prison.

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