Natural Therapies for Natural Births
Dr Denise Tiran HonDUniv FRCM, is an international authority on midwifery complementary therapies.
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Denise has been seeing a lot of posts on Social media recently from students offering their used midwifery textbooks for sale at the end of their training. Here she explores the issues around academic reading and keeping up to date.
It’s that time of year when students are coming towards the end of their three year pre-registration midwifery programmes – and when those about to start midwifery training excitedly start preparing. Part of this preparation is thinking about which textbooks to buy. The two traditional UK midwifery texts are Myles’ Textbook for Midwifery and Mayes’ Midwifery, to both of which I have contributed chapters on complementary therapies on many occasions over the various editions. Another staple is Bailliere’s Midwives’ Dictionary, which I have edited every three years since 1997 and have just finished the 14th edition (Tiran, Redford 2022). However, there is such huge diversity within the modern midwifery profession, including obstetrics, physiology, psychology, sociology, research methods, obstetric emergencies and many contemporary issues, that there is a dizzying selection of textbooks, some of which cost up to £50 or more.
It is therefore understandable that students who have purchased their own copies may want to sell them on to incoming students. However, I am concerned that some books posted for sale on social media are extremely old and have been replaced with more recent editions. I recently saw a copy of the 11th edition of the Bailliere’s Midwives’ Dictionary (2009) for sale at £10, only marginally less than the latest edition which contains many new terms and more socially acceptable definitions. Another student was selling a 2011 copy of Obstetrics by Ten Teachers, despite it having been updated six years later. Some of the books are so old that they could be kept as historical texts - and prove very interesting to compare practice years ago with how it has evolved today.
However, whilst some books remain useful for new learners, many become out of date quickly. Remember that a newly published book is often already 18 months old or more by the time it is available for sale, since the writing of it and the publication process take considerable time. My advice to incoming student midwives (despite being an author wanting you to buy my books!) is just to buy one recent comprehensive textbook (either Myles’ or Mayes’) and the dictionary – and then wait to see what is available in the university library. You may develop an interest in a specific aspect of midwifery such as breast feeding, genital mutilation, genetics or complementary therapies, in which case you can look for the most recent academic textbooks on those specialisms. You could consider sharing books with a group of colleagues to enable you all to access both general midwifery and specialist texts. You could ask for Christmas or birthday presents for those you feel you would like to own. You may find cheaper versions of some books as digital copies. Bear in mind that many of the books you purchase for your own course will be out of date by the time you qualify and may not, therefore, be suitable for students coming along after you.
Books are wonderful, especially when you own a pristine hard copy, but it is essential to keep up to date. Not only could you lose assignment marks by referring to an old edition, it could also mean you are not up to date in your practice.
If you are lucky enough to own a previous edition, especially one that is more than 20 years old, keep it for posterity, but make sure your theory and practice are based on the most up to date editions.
The beautiful blue flowers are sometimes added to cocktails. More importantly, borage contains significantly more gamma linolenic acids, one of the primary therapeutic constituents, than evening primrose oil.
Both EPO and borage are traditional remedies to start labour although evidence for effectiveness is limited.
Care should be taken with borage as it can cause liver toxicity in some.
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Old Books For New:
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