The impact of birth-related injury and pain on breastfeeding outcomes

Human milk is acknowledged to be the optimum source of nutrition for infants, while also being beneficial to maternal health (Victora et al, 2016) As such, the World Health Organization ([WHO], 2019)...

It's up to us

Primiparous women's narratives of confidence in the perinatal period

Pregnancy and childbirth are described as transitional phases or existential thresholds that childbearing women have to cross These events are multifaceted experiences with many dimensions, unique for...

The influence of women's cognitive status on their understanding of Down syndrome screening

The booking appointment is the first antenatal appointment a woman has with her midwife At this appointment, women are offered screening for numerous conditions, including Down syndrome It is vital...

An exploration of reasons why some women may leave the birth experience with emotional distress

Women use different terms to describe distress in relation to a poor childbirth experience Whereas some women consider it as having been negative, others feel their birth was traumatic (Creedy et al,...

The value nurses and midwives hold

As the World Health Organization announced 2020 the year of the nurse and midwife, many influential organisations are rallying round to showcase the achievements of the professions and give a platform...

Volunteering with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

In August 2019, I left the NHS to volunteer as a midwife in Kutupalong refugee camp in the south of Bangladesh Approximately 909 000 Rohingya refugee are residing in 34 camps in Bangladesh's...

Non-invasive prenatal testing and decision-making

The phrase ‘tyranny of choice’ has been widely used in recent years to illustrate the increasing range of options that are available to consumers in the developed world But Suter (2018) uses the term...

Midwifery and the 2020 Nightingale bicentenary celebrations

Midwifery will be in the spotlight throughout 2020 as this year has been declared the international year of the nurse and midwife by the World Health Organization (WHO); the Nightingale bicentenary...

‘Please mind the gap’

As I sat on a busy tube shuttling across London on my way to a regional meeting, I used the time to reflect upon my career I had spent all my life aspiring to be a clinical midwife, guiding women...

Book review

Squaring The Circle The book ‘Squaring...

Dealing with burnout

In their study of physician stress, Hannan et al (2018) note that in 1974, the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger first coined the term ‘burnout’, defining it as ‘a state of mental and...