Chapter 1 Social and professional support in childbirth Support during childbirth can be provided by the professionals responsible for the clinical care of the woman in labor, by other individuals specifically designated to provide support other than clinical care, or by the woman's partner, family, or friends.

What type of support Physical support Emotional support Physical comfort measures should be provided in response to the woman's own needs and wishes. These will vary from culture to culture, and from individual to individual. Her supportive companion may, for example, walk with her, massage her back, offer food and fluids, help her to find a comfortable position, or assist her with a bath or shower.

Examples of support measures analgesic measures, such as counter pressure, cold with an ice pack or heat with a hot water bottle to painful areas of her body. help the woman to use breathing patterns that may help her relax, or other rituals that she may have practiced during the pregnancy. Emotional support may include maintaining eye contact, and providing information, praise, and encouragement.

Every woman should be able to choose her source of social support in labor. This may be her partner, another family member, or a friend. Midwives, doctors, and nurses should respect her choice and provide, in addition to clinical care, appropriate physical and emotional support where it is needed.

How does birth environment in hospitals can affect labor Does the birth environment cause stress? Does the birth environment be strange? Does the birth environment affect labor contraction?

Place of birth Which is the best place for delivery? Hospital Home private

Men during labor and at birth The acceptance of men, as husbands and partners, into labor and birth is a recent phenomenon in industrialized countries. As women in these countries have begun to reclaim birth as a positive experience, the exclusion of a woman's sexual partner and the baby's father has come to be seen as incongruous (strange).

Partners are now expected to reinforce what has been taught in childbirth education classes and, if necessary, to act as advocates for the childbearing woman.

. More and more women planning a hospital birth feel that nurses are too busy or view the nurse's role as purely technical in nature. They tend to rely on their partners for support, assistance with breathing techniques, and comfort measures

It was Realizing that midwives and nurses often have little time to give adequate psychological support, hospitals have increasingly permitted and encouraged husbands or partners to assume active roles in women's care during labor. In many countries in the industrialized world, the presence of women's partners during labor has, within 20 years, gone from being occasionally permitted to being normative and virtually universal.