title: Jewish laws, customs, and practice in labor, delivery, and postpartum care.
abstract: Many communities throughout the world, especially in the United States and Israel, contain large populations of religiously observant Jews. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive, descriptive guide to specific laws, customs, and practices of traditionally, religious observant Jews for the culturally sensitive management of labor, delivery, and postpartum. Discussion includes intimacy issues between husband and wife, dietary laws, Sabbath observance, as well as practices concerning prayer, communication trends, modesty issues, and labor and birth customs. Health care professionals can tailor their practice by integrating their knowledge of specific cultures into their management plan.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing,University of Tennessee Health and Science Center, Memphis, Henrietta Szold/Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing, Jerusalem, Israel. anoble@hadassah.org.il
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rom
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Newsome-Wicks
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Engelhardt
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woloski-Wruble
mesh_terms: D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews; D007599:Judaism; D007743:Labor, Obstetric / Q000208:ethnology*; D011181:Postnatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D016746:Transcultural Nursing; D014481:United States