George F Winter

Freelance writer; Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science

Is pregnancy a disease?

What is a disease? To what extent can ‘disease’ be defined, given views in relation to terms like ‘illness’ and ‘sickness’? In considering disease in the context of evidence-based medicine (where...

Genomics and midwifery

‘Technological advances mean that there is an interface between midwifery and genomics that needs to be negotiated’ .

‘…if a pregnant woman receives a prison sentence, she may come directly from a violent domestic background, which “increases the risk of miscarriage, infection, premature birth, and injury or death...

Maternal sepsis

In a UK study, Bolger et al (2017) examined the impact of a maternal sepsis training package on maternity staff's compliance with their hospital trust's maternal sepsis guideline, as documented in...

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy

According to Russell (2012), before the 1830s, the name most generally used for morning sickness was descriptive: ‘nausea and vomiting of pregnancy’, or ‘pregnancy vomiting’. By 1856, the new phrase...

Transgender debate and midwifery

Clive James (2007) wrote that at a 1931 premiere of Charlie Chaplin's film, City Lights, Chaplin told Albert Einstein, ‘they cheer me because they all understand me, and they cheer you because no-one...

Bullying in the workplace

Bullying has more manifestations beyond being argumentative or rude, and can include overloading people with work, spreading malicious rumours, denying someone's training or promotion opportunities,...

Ultraprocessed food and pregnancy

Ultraprocessed foods have been defined as ‘industrial formulations of substances derived from foods, which typically contain cosmetic additives…and little, if any, whole foods’ (Rauber et al, 2021)....

Assisted reproduction and morality

In matters of medical ethics, it is inviting to infer that as the medical profession evolved, its members were motivated by patient-centred altruism to develop a code of practice that regulated the...

Episiotomies and ethics

The term episiotomy describes a surgical incision made in the vaginal wall and perineum, which is performed during the second stage of labour. It was first coined in 1742 by the Irish doctor and...

The ethics of assisted reproduction

‘Caring professions have a prominent role in facilitating the application of artificial reproduction technology’.

Midwifery and plant-based diets

In a study of over 250 women (both pregnant and non-pregnant) based in Ireland, De Benedictus et al (2022) evaluated dietary intake and the bioavailability of zinc, finding that ‘58.14% of women and...