Poverty, Pregnancy and the Healthcare Professional

This U.K. book examines the ways in which a group of childbearing women living in poverty in the west Midlands of England attempted to make sense of their lives and experiences. Examining the different ways in which individual women experience pregnancy and poverty, Sheila Hunt illustrates how the private stresses and strains of poverty impact on how women cope with family life. The changing and varied relationships with male partners and the support systems provided by grandmothers play a large part in these women's lives, as does their well-developed sense of responsibility and intention to do their best by their children despite their circumstances. The aim of is to attempt to provide an understanding of what it is like to be both pregnant and poor and to try to show how midwives and other health professionals can use this understanding and insight to offer more appropriate and sensitive care.