This article is based on analysis of a series of ethnographic case studies of midwifery Units in England. Midwifery units are spaces that were developed to provide more home-like and less medically oriented care for birth that would support physiological processes of labour, women’s comfort and a positive experience of birth for women and their families. They are run by midwives, either on a hospital site alongside an obstetric unit (Alongside Midwifery Unit – AMU) or a freestanding unit away from an obstetric unit (Freestanding Midwifery Unit – FMU). Midwifery units have been designed and intended specifically as locations of wellbeing and although the meaning of the term is used very loosely in public discourse, this claim is supported by a large epidemiological study, which found that they provide safe care for babies while reducing use of medical interventions and with better health outcomes for the women. Our research indicated that midwifery units function as a protected space, one which uses domestic features as metaphors of home in order to promote a sense of wellbeing and to re-normalise concepts of birth, which had become inhabited by medical models and a preoccupation with risk. However, we argue that this protected space has a function for midwives as well as for birthing women. Midwifery units are intended to support midwives’ wellbeing following decades of professional struggles to maintain autonomy, midwife-led care and a professional identity founded on supporting normal, healthy birth. This development, which is focused on place of birth rather than other aspects of maternity care such as continuity, shows potential for restoring wellbeing on individual, professional and community levels, through improving rates of normal physiological birth and improving experiences of providing and receiving care. Nevertheless, this very focus also poses challenges for health service providers attempting to provide a ‘social model of care’ within an institutional context.

中文翻译：

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出生地和幸福感

本文基于对英国助产士部门的一系列人种学案例研究的分析。助产室是为提供更多的家庭式护理和较少以医学为导向的生育服务而开发的空间，它将支持劳动的生理过程，妇女的舒适感以及为妇女及其家庭带来积极的生育经历。它们由助产士管理，既可以在医院的产科病房旁（Alongside助产士病房– AMU），也可以在远离产科病房的独立式病房（Freestanding助产士病房– FMU）的陪同下进行。助产士部门已被设计并专门用于作为幸福的场所，尽管该术语的含义在公共场合中很少使用，但这项主张得到了大规模流行病学研究的支持，他们发现他们为婴儿提供安全的护理，同时减少了医疗干预的使用，为妇女带来了更好的健康结果。我们的研究表明，助产士部门是一种受保护的空间，该空间利用家庭特征作为家庭的隐喻，以促进人们的幸福感并使出生概念重新规范化，而这一概念已被医学模型和风险意识所占据。 。但是，我们认为这种受保护的空间对于助产士以及分娩妇女具有功能。数十年来，维持助产士自主权，助产士主导的护理以及建立在支持正常健康出生的专业身份之后，助产士部门旨在支持助产士的幸福。这个发展，该报告侧重于出生地而不是诸如连续性之类的产妇保健其他方面，它显示了通过提高正常生理出生率和改善提供和接受护理的经验来恢复个人，职业和社区水平上的福祉的潜力。然而，这一重点也给试图在机构背景下提供“社会护理模式”的医疗服务提供者提出了挑战。