Fairy tale midwifery ten years on: facilitating the transition to newly qualified midwife

Seminal work (Kramer, 1974) indicated that newly qualified practitioners experience a reality shock on initiation of first post, which is supported by subsequent literature (Maben and Macleod-Clark,...

Genetic risk assessment and haemoglobinopathy counselling: two case studies

The role of the antenatal and newborn (ANNB) coordinator is to work as part of a team to deliver the six ANNB programmes commissioned by the NHS, with oversight and quality assurance provided by...

Obtaining and confirming consent

A recent High Court case has highlighted for midwives the importance of obtaining and confirming valid consent Mordel v Royal Berkshire NHS centred on what information had been provided and understood...

Coping with baby loss as a midwife

Every year, more than 6 500 babies and children under the age of five die in the UK (Child Bereavement UK, 2017) While it is widely recognised that bereaved parents should receive high-quality support...

Dealing with burnout

In their study of physician stress, Hannan et al (2018) note that in 1974, the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger first coined the term ‘burnout’, defining it as ‘a state of mental and...

Book review

Squaring The Circle The book ‘Squaring...

‘Please mind the gap’

As I sat on a busy tube shuttling across London on my way to a regional meeting, I used the time to reflect upon my career I had spent all my life aspiring to be a clinical midwife, guiding women...

Learning from loss for professionals and parents

‘They/them’ in the birth room

New research is required to understand the needs of transgender people in the birth room

Rainbow Trust neonatal care

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity is an organisation that supports families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness It employs Family Support Workers who work with individual...

Congenital heart disease: issues with screening at the newborn physical examination

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a significant cause of infant death and accounts for between 3-75% of deaths in infancy in the developed world (Singh et al, 2014) For this reason, screening for CHD...

Vaginal birth after caesarean: how NICE guidelines can inform midwifery practice

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ([NICE], 2019a) published new intrapartum care guidelines for women with existing medical conditions or obstetric complications and their babies...