The effect of a breastfeeding educational workshop on clinicians' knowledge, attitudes and practices

Breastfeeding is an important health promotion strategy that has widely accepted and documented benefits for mothers, infants, and society (Wieczorek et al, 2010; Ahluwalia et al, 2012; Kuyper et al,...

Maternal and paternal expectations of antenatal education across the transition to parenthood

Supporting parents-to-be through antenatal education classes has been recognised as an important prevention and intervention strategy (Department of Health, 2011)

Midwives' perceptions of their role in mode of birth decisions

Midwives play an important role in the journey of women in labour, from conception to birth and beyond It is acknowledged globally that midwives are critical care providers of pregnant women and are...

What enables or prevents women with depressive symptoms seeking help in the postnatal period?

Up to 20% of women experience a mental health problem in the perinatal period, (the period spanning conception to 1 year after birth) (Bauer et al, 2014) The immediate and long-term costs of perinatal...

Physical activity in pregnancy: practical advice for women who run

Running is embraced globally as a pastime to keep fit and health, and yet there is little information for midwives to give to women runners Running is, according to Audickas (2017), the most common...

The Ups of Down Syndrome

There is an assumption by many in the medical profession that a screen positive result for Down Syndrome equates to a termination More than 90% of women who receive such a result take this option I...

Giving midwives some ‘me’ time

In last month's Birthwrite column, Louise Silverton (2019) encouraged midwives and other interested parties to respond to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) consultation on the draft standards...

This is not another Brexit article

An editorial on Brexit has been a long time coming. This is not because discussing it would be irrelevant—quite the opposite. Professional bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018)...

Saving babies' lives stillbirth summit

Given the launch of the NHS Long Term Plan, which committed to expanding the Saving Babies' Lives Care Bundle (SBLCB), and the Government's target to halve the rates of stillbirth by 2025, this...

Claiming damages for psychiatric injury during childbirth

A previous article in this series recounted a court case (RE and others v Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust [2017]) in which a mother successfully sued for damages because she had...

The award winners 2019

HPV during pregnancy

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is an organism that is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact and frequently by vaginal, anal or oral sex The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...