ABSTRACT
This chapter helps to develop an understanding of the importance of psychology and of its value for midwives. It discusses the different branches of psychology: psychoanalytic psychology, clinical psychology, health psychology, developmental psychology, organisational or occupational psychology, and educational psychology. The discipline of psychology is quite separate from psychiatry, a branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental disorders. Social psychologists point out that the list of potential postnatal depression symptoms, such as tiredness and feeling helpless, could as easily be considered a normal response to the demands of motherhood. The chapter also discusses how media images of pregnancy and the postnatal period can have psychological effects on women, before considering how psychology as a discipline is evolving and examining one particular branch of psychology, developmental psychology. the mental health of the woman can have a profound effect on her progress through the pregnancy and childbirth journey.
