Childbirth educators, doulas, nurses, and women respond to the six care practices for normal birth

This collection of commentaries by childbirth educators, doulas, a labor and delivery nurse, and a woman preparing for the birth of her second baby provide an overall response to all six of Lamaze International's care practice papers that promote normal birth: Labor Begins on Its Own; Freedom of Movement throughout Labor; Continuous Labor Support; No Routine Interventions; Non-Supine (e.g., Upright or Side-Lying) Positions for Birth; and No Separation of Mother and Baby with Unlimited Opportunity for Breastfeeding. Strategies for using the position papers to facilitate learning in childbirth classes and for helping expectant parents access and understand research are presented. The commentaries describe the value of the position papers as a catalyst for professional growth, a foundation for creating change, a way to encourage reflection among professionals and women planning for the births of their babies, and an inspiration for everyone who advocates normal birth.     

Water Birth at Home: Two Perspectives

In this column, a grandmother, with a long history as an author and activist for normal birth, and her daughter, a new mother, offer their unique experiences of a water birth at home, attended by family members and midwives. Their unique perspectives demonstrate the trust in the normal birth process that is possible for every birth.     

A Capstone Course in the Information Systems Curriculum

To meet the demands of industry, the skill base necessary for information systems personnel has broadened in scope to encompass not only technical abilities but competence in team work, communication, and creativity, and an understanding of business functions. The traditional approach to information systems curricula, however, may not fully serve to address these areas in student development. This paper proposes the use of a capstone information systems course as a part of an information systems education to develop students’ abilities and skills needed in the integrative information systems/technology and business areas. It is argued that a properly designed and taught capstone course offers curriculum flexibility and can satisfy the requirements of stimulating the creative mind to integrate various interrelated concepts, and acquisition of practical knowledge.     

Learning disabilities and the auditory and visual matching computer program

This study examined whether audiovisual computer training without linguistic material had a remedial effect on different learning disabilities, like dyslexia and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). This study applied a pre‐test–intervention–post‐test design with students (N = 62) between the ages of 7 and 19. The computer training lasted eight weeks occurring twice a week for 15 minutes per session. After the training period, an improvement in the auditory‐visual matching test was found. According to the hypothesis of this study, the youngest children with dyslexia would benefit most from the intervention. However, the training had also a positive effect on auditory‐visual matching with older students with dyslexia. Surprisingly, the students with ADD benefited from this intervention. According to the teachers, this intervention had also a positive effect on the students' school behaviour.     

Normal birth: two stories

THE AUTHOR SHARES TWO STORIES: one of a normal birth that took place in a hospital with a nurse-midwife in attendance and another of a home birth unexpectedly shared by many colleagues. Both are told with the goal to inform, inspire, and educate.