Check out the video to find out what I learnt about the publisher Elsevier.

Most student midwives spend some time choosing between Mayes and Myles Midwifery; these are our two beloved seminal textbooks. It's a hard choice, they're both excellent!

Paige, a student midwife starting this year, has asked me to this video comparison. Paige, I had a look at the books, reviews, and content in detail.... and what I found out sent me plunging down the rabbit hole!

Every midwife needs a good textbook.....

I will go into detail about Mayes and Myles later on in this post. But there's something even more important I talk about in the video. Both books are published by Elsevier.

And there is a boycott of the publisher Elsevier in progress.

14,000+ academics are taking a stand against  them, as they are being criticised for charging high prices to Unis and other more questionable practices. The Lancet claims they have been involved in the international arms trade, with countries with poor human rights records.

As midwives, and student midwives, we are in a really hard position. We need access to this information and knowledge.

I suggest buying second hand copies to avoid funding Elsevier. 

About the books:

Both Mayes and Myles are excellent resources, written by various midwifery experts. They flow well, and you can learn easily from them.

Myles (16th edition) at the time of filming (Sept 2014) has been recently updated, and covers in a contemporary way topics like obesity and female gential mutilation. Because it's up to date, it's a bit more expensive than Mayes.

Both books also offer online supportive learning environments - Mayes offers 'Pageburst' and Myles 'Elsevier Evolve'. It's really confusing and there are loads of different options to get onto these Elsevier sites ('Kno' and 'Vital Source' platforms anyone?!) . Some of the services look good as they include quizzes, games, and free access to your textbook in e-book form, even if you buy a paper copy.

But unless your whole class has signed up for these options, I'd say you were safe to skip using them.

You can preview the books to see if you get on with the formatting and so on here: Mayes and Myles.

Prices: 

	Myles	Mayes
Edition	16th edition, 2014	14th edition, 2011
Amazon price paperback	£41.39	£39.59
Amazon price e-book	£38.10	£16.99

 

I found no cheaper prices online (though have a look around, things might change).

It’s best to get an up to date text book, but you could argue that all books are to some extent out of date, so don’t worry too much. Just quote from other sources in essays - see the link here to my other video which covers source material.

I'm not tearing any one person from Elsevier down, I bet there are some wonderful people working there.

But I am publicly stating I won't be buying from or working with Elsevier until they clean up their act.

I really hope you found this information as interesting as I did, please consider sharing this post with another midwife or midwifery student!

Much love, I hope all is going well for all of you xxx