The Past and the Future

Abstract

nwhjournal.org © 2016, AWHONN 7 Welcome to 2016 and the 20th volume of Nursing for Women’s Health. For volumes 1 through 10 this journal was known as AWHONN Lifelines. It was interesting for me to look back and see what we were reading about 20 years ago. Some of the topics covered in the fi rst few issues included an overview of epidural anesthesia and a discussion of laws mandating that women should have extended stays in the hospital aft er birth. Do you remember what you were doing 20 years ago? Some readers may be too young to remember, but many others, like me, can recall those years well. Some people may remember 1996 as the year the O.J. Simpson trial began or when the summer Olympics were held in Atlanta. Others may know that the New Zealand singer Lorde was born and the American politician Barbara Jordan died that year. Perhaps the year was notable because of personal events such as births, weddings, graduations, and deaths. When I think back to the 1990s, I can clearly see ways nursing practice has changed. Back then perimenopausal and postmenopausal women were receiving lifelong hormone treatment in a specifi c attempt to promote cardiac health. I cringe today when I remember that I initiated a prescription for estrogen and progesterone for a healthy 70-year-old woman, an action not recommended today. In the same period, at birth we tended to cut the cord quickly because we thought it was important that parents could cuddle their newborn in a nice warm blanket. Th at most of us didn’t think to hand the newborn to parents for skin-to-skin contact still amazes me. The Past and the Future