The revised Fourth Edition of this essential text contains 19 modules that guide the reader from assessment of the pregnant woman and her fetus, through labor and delivery, to postpartum evaluation and care. Each module is carefully developed to enhance self-paced learning and skills attainment, perfect for competence validation and orientation.

The text illustrates the essentials of intrapartum care. Step-by-step "How to's" (Skill Units) guide the nurse from fetal monitoring to management of high risk situations. This edition has new modules on cultural competence and OB Emergencies, including hemorrhage and Caesarian delivery "on demand", and new content on legal accountability, maternal and newborn transport, electronic fetal monitoring, and domestic violence assessment. This revision has been guided by two new co-authors, Margaret Betsy B. Kennedy of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and Donna J. Ruth of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Module 1: Overview of Labor
Module 2: Maternal and Fetal Response to Labor
Module 3: Admission Assessment of the Laboring Woman
Module 4: Admission Assessment of the Fetus
Module 5:Caring for the Laboring Woman
Module 6: Intrapartum Fetal Monitoring
Module 7: Induction and Augmentation of Labor
Module 8: Caring for the Woman at Risk for Preterm Labor or Premature Rupture of Membranes
Module 9: Caring for the Laboring Woman with Hypertensive Disorders Complicating Pregnancy
Module 10: Caring for the Laboring Woman with HIV Infection or AIDS
Module 11: Hepatitis B Infection: Maternal-Newborn Management
Module 12: Caring for the Pregnant Woman with Diabetes
Module 13: Delivery in the Absence of a Primary Care Provider
Module 14: Assessment of the Newborn and Newly Delivered Mother
Module 15: Informed Consent and Documentation
Module 16: Maternal Transport
Module 17: Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy
Module 18: Intrapartum Emergencies
Module 19: Care of the Woman

Experiencing an Operative or Instrumented Delivery

Appendix A: Sexually Transmitted Infections

Appendix B: Treatment of Diabetes during Pregnancy and Review of Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Appendix C: To Comfort Always: Care of the Dying Newborn

Appendix D: Guidelines for Implementing a Perinatal Education Program

Appendix E: Group B Streptococcus Infections Pregnancy

Appendix F: Care of the Woman with Special Concerns