Students in practice: The role of the student support midwife

Vaccines and the fetus

The vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which previously banned abortion, righted a long-standing wrong The vote also vindicated the principles of autonomy and justice,...

Why Home Birth Matters by Natalie Meddings

Why Home Birth Matters I was excited...

Coercion or consent?

The principle of ‘do no harm’ has been a part of medicine since the Hippocratic oath more than 2000 years ago Expanded upon by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), this...

Transition

The word ‘transition’ can apply to many areas of our lives Our very first transition is that from the warm, usually inverted world of in-utero existence, into the air- and light-filled birth room,...

A quiet revolution? It's not where you'd think

It's been a long time coming, but on 26 May in a so-called ‘quiet revolution’ (BBC, 2018), the Republic of Ireland voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment of its constitution, ending some of the...

Paying to be a midwife

Recruitment and retention of midwives can be problematic and is continually under scrutiny in the media (BBC, 2018; Royal College of Midwives (RCM), 2018) In an attempt to address this, the Chief...

Artificial gametes

First coined by the French philosopher Antoine Cournot, ‘the end of history’ is a phrase that was later popularised in the 1990s by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama

Bilirubin in the newborn: Physiology and pathophysiology

Jaundice in the newborn is usually normal. It is caused by the breakdown of red blood cells, which, as a result of newborn transitional physiology, results in the build-up of bilirubin in the infant's...

Detection of breech presentation: Abdominal palpation and hand-held scanning by midwives

The ‘sign up to safety’ initiative (NHS Litigation Authority, 2016) was introduced in 2016 to support improvements in care, and to reduce the number of stillbirths, as part of the Royal College of...

Mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation in children in the UK

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also referred to as ‘cutting’ (World Health Organization (WHO), 2018), has become an area of increasing concern in the UK and other developed countries due to...

Supporting the transition to parenthood: Development of a group health-promoting programme

High-quality perinatal care is of central importance to public health and the broader agenda for global health (ten Hoope-Bender et al, 2014) In antenatal care, the focal point has shifted from...

Postpartum physical activity and sleep levels in overweight, obese and normal-weight mothers

Lack of physical activity and sleep are two key risk factors for numerous physical and psychological health-related issues (Colten and Altevogt, 2006; Center for Disease Control (CDC), 2015) Lack of...

CPD and revalidation: Theory, practice and lessons from teachers

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulating body for nurses and midwives in the UK (NMC, 2015); its principal role is to protect the health and wellbeing of the public by ensuring that...

Breast milk donation and behavioural science

If you had told me a year ago that I would be sat here, now, writing to midwives about breast milk, I would have been incredulous As an economist, working in and around government for more than half a...