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Sophie Gardner

Editor

Vaginal breech births: the debate continues

It is not unusual for me to receive a press release or two a day about a new midwifery study with a headline meant to catch my attention. Most of the time I skim read them for importance and file them...

Stamping out inequality

New figures out last month reporting the small decline in the percentage of women smoking at the time of birth make for an encouraging read. The latest Statistics on Women's Smoking Status at Time of...

Access to maternity care should be universal

It is well known that high-quality care during pregnancy is important for the health of the mother and the development of her unborn baby. Pregnancy provides an ideal opportunity for midwives and...

It's time to rethink our vocabulary

As I find myself engrossed in midwifery in both my personal as well as my professional life once again, not a bad thing I hasten to add, I have been reflecting on my personal experience as a service...

Mental health funding heading in the right direction

With news that funding for NHS Trusts in England to provide mental health services has decreased by more than 8% since 2010 (McNicoll, 2015), the announcement by the Government that additional funds...

Priority issues from 0–19

Ageing workforce, inadequate recruitment and poor retention The UK nursing and midwifery workforce is ageing, and this is already having a considerable impact on services In 2001, the largest...

Delivering midwifery care in difficult to access areas

Earlier this month, a temporary suspension of out-of-hours midwifery services for Skye and Lochalsh was announced. This suspension—a problem that is especially significant in an area where there is an...

The end of supervision as we know it?

In December 2013, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO, 2013), raised concerns about the public protection allowed by midwifery supervision following failures at the Morecombe Bay NHS...

Choice of place of birth: Is it really that simple?

On 3rd December 2014, the much awaited updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on intrapartum care were published (NICE, 2014). The guidelines focus on the care of healthy...

Postnatal care, not vouchers, will increase breastfeeding rates

It is well known that in the UK, despite initial breastfeeding rates being relatively high, maintining these rates are a problem; the amount of women continuing to exclusively breastfeed past 6 weeks...

Changing attitudes to mental illness

The mental health profile has been raised in recent months, and about time. In 2010/11 over 1.25 million adults accessed NHS services for severe or enduring mental health problems (Health and Social...

Cast your votes now

In response to the Government's announcement in March that 60% of NHS staff will not get any pay rise this year and only those at the top of their bands will receive a 1% unconsolidated lump sum, the...

Turning assignments into articles

It is that time of year again when newly qualified midwives are starting their first posts and eager new student midwives are beginning their courses. These new beginnings have been on many people's...

End FGM from the ground up

On 22 July, the Government and UNICEF, held the first Girl Summit aimed at mobilising efforts at home and abroad to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM)...

Positive steps in public health

It isn't often that there is so much good news in the press surrounding midwifery. On 19 June the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC, 2014) released new figures showing the prevalence of...

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