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Literature Review

Midwives' recommendation of electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation strategy in pregnancy

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were first introduced in China in 2004 (Dockrell et al, 2013); however, their use has only become widespread in recent years (Bareham et al, 2016). An e-cigarette...

Lactation after loss: supporting women's decision-making following perinatal death

Perinatal death affects 54 out of every 1 000 births in the UK (Draper et al, 2019) and is classically defined as a stillbirth (where a baby is born in the UK with no signs of life after 24 completed...

Autonomy and its impact on midwifery practice

Autonomy is not a new concept in midwifery Although not explicit, the term autonomy has been embedded in the definition of a midwife (International Confederation of Midwives [ICM], 2011) Reiterated in...

Fairy tale midwifery ten years on: facilitating the transition to newly qualified midwife

Seminal work (Kramer, 1974) indicated that newly qualified practitioners experience a reality shock on initiation of first post, which is supported by subsequent literature (Maben and Macleod-Clark,...

How do risk management principles fit in with the reality of clinical midwifery?

Risk assessment and management is extremely important in midwifery However, it is unclear how its principles fit with day-to-day clinical midwifery practice While midwives are the inherent leaders of...

Management of first trimester pregnancy loss: mifepristone plus misoprostol versus misoprostol alone

Miscarriage occurs in 20% of all pregnancies (Fernlund et al, 2018) and medical management using misoprostol is now a popular treatment option as opposed to surgical intervention Current research...

Fairy tale midwifery 10 years on: re-evaluating the lived experiences of newly qualified midwives

At the point of registration, the newly qualified midwife (NQM) is a competent novice practitioner in low-risk midwifery care, and is expected to refine and develop skills and confidence in caring for...

The relationship between interpersonal trauma and substance misuse in pregnancy

Background There is a strong body of evidence supporting associations between interpersonal trauma (IPT) and substance use; however, this tends to focus on associations between childhood trauma and...

Using a transcervical Foley catheter to enhance normality for induction of labour

In 2016–2017, 294% of women in the UK underwent a medical induction of labour (NHS Digital, 2017) This is an increase from the 149% in 2014–2015 (Hospital Episode Statistics Analysis, Health and...

Staying together: mothers and babies in prison

The number of women imprisoned across the world is increasing According to the World Female Imprisonment List, the number of female prisoners has increased worldwide by 53% since 2000 (Walmsley,...

Women's experiences of outpatient induction of labour

Approximately 326% of labours in the UK are induced, either before or after the estimated due date (NHS Digital, 2018) This number has increased by 122% in the past 10 years (NHS Digital, 2018) and is...

Have interventions been effective at increasing the rates of breastfeeding in the UK?

The rates of breastfeeding initiation and maintenance in the UK are some of the lowest in the world, despite extensive evidence in support of the notion that ‘breast is best’ (Earle, 2002) Exclusive...

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