Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work

Book excerpt: Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work: A Guide for Clinical Practice provides perinatal social work students and beginning practitioners with an overview of the basics of perinatal social work theory and practice, allowing you to identify and promote a healthy social and emotional environment for pregnant women and/or infants. This book covers the knowledge bases of obstetric and neonatal medicine--and other specialized topics--as applied to social work practice that you’ll need to be familiar with in order to provide effective care for mother and child. As a guide for new workers, students, and experienced social workers in perinatal settings, Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work is the only book to approach the topic with the necessary overview of medical information. Beyond the history and basics of perinatal and medical social work, you’ll also learn about such related topics as: adoption postpartum depression mental illness diabetes Often, students and new workers find themselves overwhelmed with the medical information and technology they must understand in order to function in perinatal social work. The literature that guides the social work practice is shared with medicine, nursing, public health, and others, and the busy student and new worker do not have the time to gather a body of literature to use as a reference. Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work provides such a reference and illustrates the depth and breadth the field of perinatal social work has come to encompass today. Perinatal social workers are no longer employed only in hospital settings, but work in AIDS clinics, public health settings, ethics centers, and private practice. Whatever the setting, the goal of perinatal social work is still the same--to maximize the potential of every infant and every family. This book helps you achieve that goal.