ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on material explanations of poverty and analyses the issues and limitations inherent in policy approaches, both in the recent past and contemporaneously. The impact of poverty on the health of poor mothers and their babies is explored, with a focus on lone mothers and teenage mothers, together with the challenges presented for midwifery practice. The chapter reviews of some innovative approaches to practice. It challenges naturalistic and individualistic explanations such as these, in its exploration of the socio-political and economic factors that combine to increase the odds of unfavourable pregnancy and childbirth experiences and outcomes for significant numbers of women in contemporary Britain. The analysis includes a focus on two groups of women who are at particular risk during pregnancy because of poverty: lone mothers and teenage mothers. The chapter explores poverty as a concept, focusing on some difficulties regarding its measurement and definition.
