Considering promoting normality in the high risk environment
(April 2015) Contrary to the information the media would have us believe, a majority of women still will go into labour without the need for induction and will give birth vaginally (NICE 2014). Currently however most of those women will also birth in an obstetric unit, though hopefully the dissemination of the new NICE guidance will start to have an impact of chosen place of birth given that around 45% of women are at low risk of complications in labour. So it would seem that most midwifery care in labour is given to women on a high risk unit at present. As a student midwives we are taught about the normal physiology of birth, that the mechanism of labour is facilitated by a delicate balance of hormones and that oxytocin is an element to be treasured and worked with. Of course we are also taught about when labour and birth takes a more complicated route and what action to take in those situations, and the inclination sometimes is to imagine that all normality is left behind in t...