Intrapartum Nursing Care: A Case Study of Supportive Interventions and Ethical Conflicts

Abstract

Intrapartum nursing care reflected both a medical model of controlling and hastening birth, as well as a supportive, nurturing, and empowering model of practice that used independent clinical judgments and advocacy. Questionable medical care entangled the nurse in these practices and created moral dilemmas and nurse-physician conflicts. The nurse used various strategies to promote the wishes and welfare of the laboring mother.