Whatever the reasoning one can be certain that the efforts experienced in achieving these goals has brought about medicalisation and in return, a decline in the area of social sup port for women. The medical profession's preoccupation in reducing maternal and infant mortality is evident when one considers the medical classification for the definition of normal labour. Thus, it may be assumed that women receiving antenatal care are treated in the same manner, i.e. ill or potentially abnormal. While one cannot argue that the quest to improve the safety of birth has been successful, it must be recognised that it has been inadvertently responsi ble for the lack of social support available to women around the time of childbirth. While obstetricians are concerned with perinatal and maternal mortality rates and strive to achieve a healthy baby and mother, women view childbearing in a more holistic way.
Research indicates that women feel undervalued as individuals in hospitals.
In an atmosphere such as this, health professionals tend to ignore the problems perceived by pregnancy women and , instead, focus on the care of the foetus and the newborn child. Because the social, psychological, and physical problems experienced by pregnancy women are often substantial, care during pregnancy and childbirth cannot be as effective as it might be if those providing it are insufficiently aware of the particular prob lems experienced by individual pregnant women and uninformed about the wider social circumstances in which these are occurring. However, she does point out that this role has been hindered by medical involvement. Implications for these restrictions are many and varied, but most significantly, is the type of care available to women. When medical staff assess normal pregnancy, care tends to be fragmented into a number of tasks undertaken by different personnel.