Why Home Birth Matters by Natalie Meddings

Why Home Birth Matters I was excited...

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,...

Students in practice: The role of the student support midwife

‘No offence, it's just that research is boring’: The trials and tribulations of the midwifery research educator

The argument that ‘research is boring’ is one that greets me most days when trying to introduce research to undergraduate student midwives The role of research in midwifery has become well established...

Maternal attitude towards breastfeeding: A concept analysis

This article explores and clarifies the concept of maternal attitude as related to breastfeeding by exploring the literature and undertaking a concept analysis using Walker and Avant's (2011)...

Recreational exercise during pregnancy: Attitudes and beliefs of midwives and physiotherapists

Many studies have confirmed the benefits of recreational exercise during pregnancy for both the mother and the fetus (Magro-Malosso 2017; Rogoziñska et al, 2017) Recreational exercise is defined by...

Pregnant women are doing it for themselves: Self-monitoring of blood pressure in pregnancy

Pre-eclampsia screening is one of the cornerstones of antenatal care Early recognition of the disorder is linked to improved maternal and neonatal outcomes (Action on Pre-eclampsia (APEC), 2004) and...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...