Whether you offer comprehensive pregnancy care in your primary care facility, or provide prenatal and postpartum care, this book delivers the guidance you need to optimize health for both mothers and their babies. It covers all aspects of birth care, from preconception counseling and prenatal care, through labor and delivery (both low-risk and complicated), to postpartum care and the first month of life. The completely revised third edition includes the most up-to- date, evidence-based standards of care. It offers information that is patient centered, prevention oriented, educational, and sensitive to the care of the whole woman and her family.