Publisher's Synopsis
Primary Mothercare and Population meets the need for an up-to-date text in obstetrics, midwifery, gynaecology, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and family planning, for health-workers in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Its authors are senior clinicians and academics who have worked in such settings, a combination rarely brought together. Co-ordinated by a uniquely qualified, self-styled "Knowledge Engineer" (Maurice King), previously responsible for Primary Surgery and Primary Childcare, this third edition of Primary Mothercare and Population has been revised and updated by Managing Editor Glen Mola. The book has 28 chapters: encyclopaedic in content, visually kaleidoscopic, replete with diagrams, cartoons and new thinking. One such is a 'First'; that is the extended-use regimen known as 'tricycling 63/4', with well-documented benefits, should become the new Norm for taking oral contraceptive pills. Written in a reader-friendly, idiom-free style with few technical words, here is a resource or "library," for community level birth assistants, midwives, and doctors whose first language may not be English; not for reading 'cover-to-cover', but for dipping into as clinical need arises in under-resourced settings. Public Health principles underpin all chapters, emphasising "the greatest good for the greatest number", whilst helping health workers provide care that is kind-hearted as well as evidence-based. With 99% of pregnancy-related deaths occurring in LMICs, the world's mothers deserve better care - including better contraceptive care. After all, 'you cannot die from a pregnancy you didn't have'. There is also frank discussion of the perils of not achieving environmentally sustainable populations, whether locally - by compassionately addressing 'demographic entrapment' - or globally.
