Breastfeeding After Cesarean Section

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Chapter I

Introduction

Background to the study

In Australia, maternity care is provided via two principal models. Public care, which is Medicare funded, incurs no additional cost for women and is generally provided by general practitioners (GPs) in the community and midwives in public hospitals. Low-risk women attend antenatal clinics and have most care provided by midwives but are reviewed, at selected intervals, by a doctor. Care during labor, birth and post partum is mainly provided by midwives in consultation with hospital doctors, and women return to their GP for review at six weeks post partum. Alternately, a percentage of women, with private health insurance, elect to see a private obstetrician and attend for antenatal appointments in the obstetrician's rooms. Most of these women attend a private hospital for labour and birth. Care is provided by midwives in consultation with the private obstetrician, who will aim to be present for the birth.

Within the public model of care, some dedicated antenatal clinics are offered for particular segments of the population, e.g. teenage, refugee or aboriginal women (DHS, 2006).

Purpose of Study

The aim of this study will be to analyze Saudi women who undergo to the cesarean section in Melbourne, Australia.

Significance of Study

Traditional birthing practices and beliefs are as varied as the women themselves. All, however, seem to progress through sequential phases of adjustment before arriving at an understanding of continuous antenatal care as important. This process appears to be facilitated through the provision of a supportive sensitive service. The provision of a sensitive welcoming service appears to promote acceptance of antenatal care and encourage attendance at antenatal appointments.

Chapter II

Literature Review

Childbearing is a life event of critical importance (Davis Floyd, 1988) that is experienced within a cultural and social context. As such, the practices that surround childbirth are underpinned and shaped by local beliefs and social context, and this occurs in all societies. Moreover, in more traditional societies, childbearing may be the most important role in a woman's life, and a variety of practices and rituals exist to protect and support the new mother and the fetus/baby. Some examples include warding off the 'evil eye' in Middle Eastern cultures and the avoidance of 'cold' foods for 40 days post partum in many Asian cultures. Religious influences may also be very important and women may subscribe to a variety of religious determinants of pregnancy outcome, such as God and moral behavior. All of these factors influence a woman's understanding of appropriate maternal behavior and attention to the pregnancy. In this way, women from diverse backgrounds may use different frames of reference to make sense of pregnancy events (Jordan, 1993; Wiklund et al., 2000), and may behave in ways contrary to Western beliefs. Moreover, against this background of recognised cultural meaning, childbearing can pose real challenges for the new immigrant, who no longer has access to traditional support and practices, and whose beliefs may hold no currency in their new country. Such challenges may be compounded by language barriers, different understandings of antenatal care and competing ...