IS RELIGION SUFFICIENT?

Is religion as we interpret, teach and practice it today capable of motivating life? Can religion qualify or control conduct and so shape character? In common with lower forms of life, we respond to the drive of hunger, to the desire for a mate, to the compulsion of fear and anger, to the urge to live and to defend our lives. These motivations are all very simple and direct. They spring from nature's demand that the race shall not end, but shall go on.

But is there another source of motivation‐‐call it a higher source if you wil‐‐which is able to condition these more primitive and subjective drives and cause men to act with reference to values outside themselves? Is there a source of constraint capable of making men serve ideal ends? And is religion this source, has it this power over men?     

Perceptions of nurses and mothers in four studies of the peripartum period

How individuals perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others are an important part of the relationships between childbirth educators, nurses, other health-care providers, and the families they serve. In this paper, four studies are reviewed. One study focused on labor nurses' perception of their roles. Three other studies, each using a different research strategy, examined mothers' perceptions of their experiences during the peripartum period.