Wellness throughout the maternity cycle

Family-centered maternity care, increased patient participation, and the explosion of childbirth preparation and family-life education programs are viewed as positive influences toward wellness in childbearing and childrearing. Negative influences that increase stress and disrupt health care supervision include the efforts of women to combine career and motherhood, the high mobility of today's society, inadequate distribution of health care services related to financial and geographic barriers and lack of preparation for parenting. Professionals in health care services, nurses specifically as key contact persons, are challenged to develop and to promote patient participation in preconceptual educational programs to provide the following: information to foster healthier lifestyle patterns and expectations of the childbearing and childrearing life experiences; discussion groups for peer support; and skills practice sessions to allay anxiety and frustration of newborn and child caretaking. Home health care for post-partum mothers and newborns is considered an essential nursing service that becomes even more essential with early discharge plans. Incorporation of nurse midwives into the health team is viewed as a positive step toward reducing financial and geographic barriers to ongoing, quality maternal-child health supervision.