The award winners 2019

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...

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...

Measuring the benefits of free pregnancy yoga classes

Antenatal yoga has numerous benefits for women, including increased comfort in labour, decreased pain in labour and decreased length of labour (Chuntharapat et al, 2008; Jahdi et al, 2017)...

A qualitative study of women's experience of a perinatal group health-promoting programme

An investment in strategies to promote ‘a healthy start to life’ is thought to reduce health inequalities across the entire course of life (Marmot et al, 2012) Extensive research has been conducted...

A literature review exploring student midwives' experiences of continuity of mentorship on the labour ward

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates practice for nurses and midwives in the UK It sets standards to support learning and assessment in clinical practice and the education of...

The profile of professional midwifery leadership in England

The past decade has seen significant, system-wide changes to the midwifery profession

Interprofessional education: shared learning for collaborative, high-quality care

Working together for patients is a core NHS value (Department of Health, 2015), and the public expects to receive high quality care from a well-trained, cohesive workforce Landmark reports (Laming,...

Book Review

This book has more than 370 pages and 29 chapters providing some in-depth evidence-based knowledge. The book is suitable for all levels of midwifery, and topics range from why women should breastfeed,...

Sepsis

I palpate an oncoming contraction ‘Your bump feels really warm,’ I say to the woman I'm caring for, ‘do you feel OK?’ She replies, shrugging: ‘Yes, I feel fine’ All the observations were normal, the...

New report is a chance to act—before it's too late

At the end of January 2019, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released its annual report into maternity services, based on data from more that 17 600 women who gave birth in February 2018. While...

Vegans, vegetarians and pregnancy

In December 2018, the prosperous vegan parents of a toddler, whose diet-related vitamin D deficiency caused her to develop rickets, were arrested in Australia (Chapman, 2018) This follows a UK case in...

The future is ours

We have made significant improvements in maternity care: an 188% reduction in stillbirths (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2018a), a 58% reduction in neonatal mortality (ONS, 2018b) and an 8%...

Postpartum psychosis and management: a case study

Postpartum (or puerperal) psychosis is a severe mood disorder characterised by acute onset manic or affective psychosis (Dias and Jones, 2016), usually within 2 weeks after childbirth (Norhayati et...

Use of technology in simulation training in midwifery

Midwifery education is facing many challenges in finding clinical placements to meet curriculum requirements to educate and prepare midwifery students in specialised areas (Brady et al, 2015)