Article Outline

• Copyright

Appraising Research into Childbirth is written in a chatty style and speaks directly to the reader using first person. It is aimed at midwifery students and midwives upgrading or refreshing their knowledge of research. Helpful hints about how to impress your teacher, and things to consider if submitting work for examination, are scattered throughout the book. Teachers may also find it stimulates thinking about teaching research effectively and creatively.

The book consists of six sections. Sections two to five have two chapters each. Both qualitative and qualitative research is appraised. Each chapter has a Discussion and Summary section, references and further reading.

Section 1 consists of research tools, tips and checklists. Sections two to five are geared to particular research areas such as “Researching women's views” (section 3) or “Childbirth interventions” (section 4). Section 6 contains useful research resources. Within section 6 is a guide to tables, some basic information about statistics including level of measurement, descriptive statistics, relational statistics and inferential statistics. Confidence intervals and p values are explained simply. Some information is provided on critiquing several studies on a topic as required when conducting a literature review.

As the title indicates the book is highly interactive. Eight previously published research articles on a variety of topics relating to childbearing are used as the basis for questions relating to all aspects of the research process. Answers are provided to avoid reader uncertainty about whether their response was correct and complete. Each research article is systematically analysed including the philosophical and political issues.

The book was easy to use. Readers can move backwards and forwards through the text and readily access topics needed through the index. The highly interactive style and practical approach to developing research skills and knowledge makes this book a ‘must have’ for midwifery students and midwives starting to learn about research.