Midwives in the midst of COVID-19

The world has become connected and united through a global pandemic that has drastically changed the normal way of life The coronavirus, formally known as COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2, is a virus that...

Nappy rash: current evidence for the prevention and management

Nappy rash, also known as diaper rash, nappy dermatitis, diaper dermatitis or irritant diaper dermatitis, is one of the most common skin conditions found in infants and is an acute inflammatory...

Reducing the incidence of stillbirth in black women

A stillbirth is a baby delivered at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy showing no signs of life, irrespective of when the death occurred The UK is noted to have one of the highest stillbirth rates in...

Measuring women's experiences of childbirth using the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R)

The 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) is a multi-factorial psychometrically robust tool developed for the purpose of measuring women's experiences of labour and childbirth (Hollins...

Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy, lactation and infancy: why is it fundamental?

Vitamin D, known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, is made in the skin in response to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation, and once activated in the body to the hormone calcitriol (1,25 dihydroxy-vitamin D), it...

Guidance for the provision of antenatal services during the COVID-19 pandemic

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus, a new strain of coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-COV-2) causing COVID-19, had...

‘Birth Days’: a documentary film

A woman appears on screen; she cries deeply A friendly hand appears on screen, caresses the naked back of the woman, then her face A midwife tries to comfort a woman in labour The pregnant woman and...

Acupressure And Acupuncture During Birth: An Integrative Guide For Acupuncturists And Birth Professionals

Does COVID-19 affect pregnant women?

Why breech birth matters

I was recently teaching a physiological breech birth training day for Breech Birth Network, CIC where I met a wonderful doula with a vast amount of knowledge on physiological birth and supporting...

Enabling perinatal volunteering

There is overwhelming evidence that volunteering and peer support has a unique and valuable contribution to make to ‘Better Births’ outcomes (Spiby et al, 2015; Parents 1st and Institute for Voluntary...

Gestational diabetes and ethics

According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) around 700 000 women give birth in England and Wales annually; up to 5% of these women have either pre-existing diabetes or...