‘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...

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,...

Dear Secretary of State

I write in my capacity as a consultant midwife regarding my serious concerns about the impact of the ‘cost recovery’ programme on upfront charging on community midwifery for overseas visitors...

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...