Comment
The ethics behind caesarean section
The World Health Organization recommends that the ideal rate for caesarean sections should be between 10 and 15% However, caesarean sections have become increasingly common in both developed and...
Mitochondrial donation
In early February 2015, MPs voted to amend the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act to permit mitochondrial donation (Gallagher, 2015) On 24 February, the House of Lords approved the amendment,...
The future of supervision
There will be surprise and shock among UK midwives following the Nursing and Midwifery Council's decision that statutory supervision of midwives should no longer be part of its legal framework (NMC,...
The new Code and what it means for midwives
The current Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008)Code was published close to 7 years ago This not only predated the reforms following the ‘liberation of the NHS' (Department of Health, 2010),...
Empowering families to make informed choices about sleep safety
In December 2014, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued updated recommendations for health professionals on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and co-sleeping (sleeping...
IMUK back to the future
Faced with the fast approaching EU directive 2011/24/EU requiring all health professionals to have professional indemnity insurance, Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) took up the challenge to solve this...
Expanded newborn blood spot screening
From 5 January 2015, the NHS Newborn Blood Spot Screening Programme has been expanded to screen all newborn babies in England for the following rare, but potentially disabling conditions: maple syrup...
Midwives key to the winter illness fight
Winter is now upon us and as the heating is turned up, the cold and flu season begins. Over recent years, hospitals in England have coped with significant seasonal spikes in hospital admissions for...
NICE and safe staffing: The fight for more midwife-led care
Midwifery is about providing high-quality compassionate care and comfort at one of the most important times in a woman's life However, factors outside an individual midwife's control can have a major...
Midwifery revalidation
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are overhauling their fitness to practise systems and revalidation is the new process by which midwives will demonstrate, on a 3 yearly cycle, that they remain...
Language matters
I have recently joined the editorial board of the British Journal of Midwifery and have been asked to review papers for possible inclusion in the journal. The journal receives a high number of...
Nicotine and e-cigarette use during pregnancy
Smoking cigarettes throughout pregnancy is one of the single most important avoidable causes of adverse pregnancy outcomes, resulting in severe short- and long-term negative effects for the mother and...
Providing financial support at the time of greatest need
Like many good ideas, the Child Funeral Charity came about through personal experience. I've been in education most of my life and all Trustees are involved in the funeral industry.
Midwives working for Médecins Sans Frontières
Tissi is a very small place in the very big country of Chad If you look Tissi up on google maps you won't find it However, it lies right down in the bottom East hand corner of Chad, approximately 7 km...
Peer support for women with hyperemesis gravidarum
Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) affects up to 80% of pregnant women in the first trimester (Goodwin, 1998) A recent systematic review has shown that normal pregnancy sickness may offer a...
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Evidence-based best practice
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Peer-reviewed research
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