Mixed blessings : intensive care for newborns
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Mixed blessings : intensive care for newborns
Oxford University Press, 1986
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-300) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In just a decade's time, intensive medical care for newborns has changed from an experimental venture to a widespread and often controversial hospital service. The cost of newborn intensive care ranks among the top three medical expenses in this country, and while the legal and ethical issues of treating critically ill infants parallel those of adult patients, even more troublesome is the issue of family versus physician control of hospital technology. In this first inside account of the closed world of neonatal intensive care, two medical sociologists focus on the social context for medical decision making in the sensitive area of newborn life. Based on observations in the most sophisticated neonatal intensive care units in twelve U.S. hospitals, this work explores the diverse experiences and perspectives of the parents, and all involved hospital personnel. Giving particular attention to how physicians and nurses approach clinical work, they raise sensitive questions and issues that are part of the fabric of neonatal care, questions such as: When should a baby be moved into--or out of--an intensive care unit? How much help should be given? To what extent are parents regularly excluded from decisions made about the fate of their child? The result is an enthralling ethnography with findings both fascinating and eye-opening. In the final chapters the authors offer policy recommendations that address the social and professional problems associated with newborn intensive care. This controversial new field of medical care is of increasing public concern as more and more babies are entering intensive care units and the previous limits of human life are being continually challenged and extended.
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