Beschreibung
This first open-access book on midwifery and sexuality integrates sexual health into the care for the pregnant and postpartum couple. It addresses sexuality and intimacy from an education and prevention perspective instead of just focusing on treating problems, aiming to foster the development of sexual well-being and happy couplehood.Sexuality and intimacy are essential elements in the bonding of the couple and the parents-to-be. That process can be seriously hampered by sexual problems due to mutual misunderstanding, fear and sexual troubles (especially when the natural processes of conceiving, pregnancy and delivery are disturbed). In this phase of life, disruption of intimacy, sexuality and sexual relationship is a significant risk factor for developing couple and family problems. The need for such a book stems from the very limited attention given to this health area in the daily practice of most midwives and related healthcare professionals. In building a close relationship with the couple through frequent, intense, longstanding contact, the midwife acquires a perfect position to address sexuality and intimacy. With 36 authors from 14 countries, the book comprises five modules: 1. Sexuality; 2. Sexual aspects of the various phases of reproduction when things develop without complications; 3. Sexual aspects when those same phases deviate from physiology; 4. Special topics on sexuality relevant to daily midwifery practice; 5. Teaching, learning, skills and competencies with regard to sexuality. This new practical textbook guides healthcare professionals such as midwives, obstetricians, gynaecologists, nurses, general practitioners, pelvic floor therapists, etc., by offering both basic knowledge and skills on sexual health and wellbeing, combined with modern sexological knowledge, like the entirely new topic of sexual aspects of preconception care.
Autorenporträt
Sam Geuens became a clinical sexologist by chance. He started his University career studying Moral Sciences with a particular interest in semantics - the way people use words and play with their meaning. Realising that sexuality and intimacy are full of semantic pitfalls and miscommunication, he moved to clinical sexology after finishing his ethics degree. He added psychotherapy and started working with people and couples experiencing various relationship and sexual difficulties. He practised in the Netherlands and Wales before settling in Flemish institutionalised healthcare.Ever since he has been practising medical sexology within hospital settings. Many hospitals did and do not yet have departments focused on treating sexual difficulties. So he started outpatient sexology clinics at the hospitals in Herentals, Hasselt and Heusden-Zolder. In this last one, he is still counselling patients/couples with various sexual problems. Working in this intersection of gynaecology, urology, psychiatry, and endocrinology has convinced him that our healthcare systems have a long way to go before taking people's sexual health and well-being seriously. Wanting to contribute to such a brighter sexual health future, Sam is active as a board member for both the Flemish Society for Sexology and the European Federation for Sexology, helping to get sexology and sexual health the attention it deserves in Flanders and the rest of Europe. Ten years ago, he entered midwifery in a rather suiting way. He was standing in the hallway of his hometown's maternity ward, having just become a father for the second time, when getting a phone call from the University's head of midwifery announcing that he got a job lecturing their midwifery bachelor students. Since then, his primary focus has been training aspiring midwives at the PXL University College in Hasselt, Belgium, teaching them psychology and mental health related to reproduction & early childhood development, sexual health & well-being, communication & counselling skills and deontology & clinical ethics. Aspiring midwives are always a thrilling and engaging bunch of students eager to learn and develop themselves. He hopes this new textbook on Sexuality & Midwifery can help colleagues to integrate sexuality into their midwifery programs, help practising midwives to take up the sexual well-being of their clients and educate his fellow sexologists on all matters regarding sexuality and childwish, pregnancy and young parenthood. At age five, when her brother was born, Ana Polona Mivsek decided to become a midwife when she had the privilege of meeting her mother's birthing assistant. It was precisely the year when midwifery education was abolished in Slovenia. Without the opportunity to fulfil that dream, she went to the gymnasium. In the last year, when she was deciding on her professional future, the government revived midwifery education, and the University of Ljubljana was accepting its first generation of midwifery students. It felt as if she was called to become a midwife. In 2000 she graduated as the first bachelor of midwifery in Slovenia. Though she got a job in the delivery room of a maternity hospital in Ljubljana, her curiosity was not yet satisfied, and she applied for an MSc in midwifery. Since this was impossible in Slovenia, she headed to Scotland, where she met her mentor, an aspiring midwifery researcher who became her role model. A few years later, she began to teach at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, in the Department of Midwifery. The following ten years were a hectic time - she became the head of the midwifery department, was the only midwifery teacher in Slovenia, was doing her PhD alongside her job, and in all this chaos, had a daughter.In her midwifery
Herstellerkennzeichnung:
Springer Verlag GmbH
Tiergartenstr. 17
69121 Heidelberg
DE
E-Mail: juergen.hartmann@springer.com
