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Clinical Practice

Safe drug administration in midwifery

Safe drug administration is an NHS priority and fundamental standard of the Care Quality Commission (CQC, 2016); this is important because midwives' errors in drug administration are reflected in...

Platelets in pregnancy: Their role and function in disease

Platelets are ‘anucleate’ cell fragments that circulate in the blood and are critical for haemostasis (Figure 1) They usually exist in a quiescent state but upon vascular injury they become activated...

Non-invasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome in general maternity services

For a woman hoping to start a family, discovering two lines on her urine pregnancy test may initiate profound excitement at a future vision of motherhood This is followed in the subsequent weeks by a...

Creating and maintaining compassionate relationships with bereaved parents after perinatal death

It is well recognised in the literature that the quality of the relationship between the midwife and the woman is central to the quality of care provided during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal...

Thalassaemia in pregnancy: Contemporary care for a timeless disease

Thalassaemia is one of the most common genetic blood disorders affecting women's ability to conceive and progress through a normal pregnancy and birth (Hanprasertpong et al, 2013) Currently, there are...

Paternal postnatal depression: How midwives can support families

Men's health is an important public health issue (Baker et al, 2014) Over the past 3 decades, the issue of men's health has moved from the margins to the centre of health discourse (Richardson, 2013)...

Micronutrients and the use of vitamin and mineral supplements during pregnancy and lactation

Optimal birth weight is often seen as the primary indicator of a positive pregnancy outcome, while a low birth weight or a baby born small for gestational age (SGA) is indicative of impaired fetal...

Bladder care in the context of motherhood: Ensuring holistic midwifery practice

The physiological processes of pregnancy and birth involve dramatic changes in the urogenital system, impacting women's bladder health in both the short and long term, and influencing psychological...

Pre-conception care for women with diabetes: A public health issue

Diabetes mellitus continues to be one of the most common pre-existing medical conditions to complicate pregnancy and carries considerable risks for both the woman and the fetus (McCance, 2011; Knight...

Successful tissue donation in the anencephalic baby

Anencephaly is a defect in the closure of the neural tube during the fourth week of gestation, occurring in 47/10 000 births (Collins et al, 2013) The neural tube is a narrow channel that folds and...

Urinary catheterisation: Indications and complications

Increasing numbers of women, either during the birth process or in the postnatal period, require an indwelling urinary catheter for a number of reasons This could be because the woman requires a...

Cell-free DNA fetal blood group testing for RhD-negative pregnant women: Implications for midwifery

Red cell (D) allo-immunisation is a complication of pregnancy that can occur when a pregnant woman does not have the D antigen on her red blood cells (RhD negative) but her fetus does (RhD positive)...

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