Selected as a Doody’s Core Title for 2025!

Leave the self-doubt behind — get fully grounded in effective perinatal care, with Perinatal Nursing, 5th Edition, an official publication of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). This freshly updated, comprehensive resource offers expert guidelines and best practices for the full range of patient care issues, from cultural practices and pregnancy complications to newborn assessments and nutrition. Stay current with this must-have, evidence-based support for both perinatal and labor and delivery nursing.

Strengthen and upgrade your perinatal nursing strengths and expertise:

• NEW and expanded content on pregnancy complications – Bleeding in pregnancy, preterm labor and birth, diabetes, cardiac disease, pulmonary complications, multiple gestation, obesity and more
• NEW content on newborn nutrition – The infant feeding decision, breastfeeding benefits, nutritional components, and preterm milk and lactation
• NEW and updated content on patient safety and maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States – Instructions on how to make maternity units safer based on the most current evidence, and through application of various care bundles
• Evidence-based information on clinical conditions – Includes chapter on obesity that covers risks to the mother and fetus, care from preconception to postpartum, and bariatric surgery
• Text boxes emphasize crucial care standards and guidelines
• Practical guidance and current best practices for areas including:
  • Perinatal patient safety and quality care
  • Integrating patient cultural beliefs and practices into perinatal care
  • Physiologic changes of pregnancy
  • Antenatal care
  • Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
  • Pregnancy complications
  • Multiple gestation
  • Maternal-fetal transport
  • Labor and birth
  • Fetal assessment
  • Managing pain during labor
  • Postpartum care
  • Newborn care – Adaptation to extrauterine life, physical assessment and nutrition
  • Common neonatal complications
• All chapters written by expert nurse clinicians and researchers to support positive perinatal outcomes
• Nursing staffing standards are included as they apply to each patient population
• Ideal for those seeking certification in obstetrics nursing (RNC-OB) and maternal newborn nursing (RN-MNN, RNC-LRN)
• Perfect on-the-job resource and review text for all perinatal nurses, maternal units, and students

Your book purchase includes a complimentary download of the enhanced eBook for iOS™, Android™, PC and Mac. Take advantage of these practical features that will improve your eBook experience:

• The ability to download the eBook on multiple devices at one time — providing a seamless reading experience online or offline
• Powerful search tools and smart navigation cross-links that allow you to search within this book, or across your entire library of VitalSource® eBooks
• Multiple viewing options that enable you to scale images and text to any size without losing page clarity, as well as responsive design
• The ability to highlight text and add notes with one click

About the Clinical Editors

Kathleen Rice Simpson, PhD, RNC, FAAN is Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and Editor-in-Chief MCN, The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Patricia A. Creehan, MSN, RNC is Manager of Clinical Operations, Labor and Delivery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Nancy O’Brien-Abel, MSN, RNC is Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist at Perinatal Consulting, LLC and Affiliate Instructor at the School of Nursing, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Cheryl K. Roth, PhD, WHNP-BC, RNC-OB, RNFA is a Nurse Practitioner, Labor and Delivery at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea/Osborn Medical Centers in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Annie J. Rohan, PhD, RN, NNP-BC, CPNP-PC,FAANP is Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program and Director of Pediatric Research at the School of Nursing, Office of Nursing Research and Innovation at Stony Brook University (SUNY at Stony Brook) in Stony Brook, New York.