Does COVID-19 affect pregnant women?

First week on the job

‘No one can prepare you for the transition from student to qualified practitioner’ These are the wise words of my mum, former intensive treatment unit nurse and current matron She's absolutely right...

Why Oxytocin Matters

Why Oxytocin Matters As a whole, this...

A report on a quality improvement initiative to increase midwives' confidence in attending home birth

Aquality improvement project was initiated with the aim of increasing home birth within a London NHS trust In 2016, the ‘Better Births’ report (NHS, 2016) was published As an early adopter for the...

Investigation of informed consent procedures initiated in the intrapartum period

There is common agreement that the three key elements of informed consent, voluntarism, information disclosure (Office for Human Research Protections, 1979) and the decision-making capacity of an...

Utilisation of antenatal care services as determinants of satisfaction and its challenges in Lagos, Nigeria

Complications of pregnancy and childbirth cause more deaths and disabilities than any other reproductive health problems in African countries, including Nigeria (World Health Organization [WHO], 2016)...

Back to the future: midwives' experiences of undertaking a return to midwifery practice programme

Midwifery shortages are a global issue (World Health Organization, 2018) Maintaining an adequate and competent workforce is a major challenge for health service providers An increasingly important...

Childbirth satisfaction and perceptions of control: postnatal psychological implications

The safe delivery of a healthy baby is a critical priority in perinatal care However, maternal satisfaction also remains an important outcome, as it has the potential to influence psychological...

What is a professional midwifery advocate?

Midwives roles are dedicated to their profession, their patients, and giving their time to help women during their pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum period This job can be taxing on the health...

Terminology review: changing culture to reduce risk

Oxytocin (Syntocinon®) and ergometrine with oxytocin (Syntometrine®) are two well-known brands of oxytocics in current use in maternity centres within the UK A recent incident alerted staff at...

Exploring problematic substance use among registered midwives

There is a united level of concern for the health and wellbeing of midwives in the UK, where recent research has shown that many of these midwives experience work-related stress and burnout (Hunter et...

Gestational diabetes and ethics

According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) around 700 000 women give birth in England and Wales annually; up to 5% of these women have either pre-existing diabetes or...

Enabling perinatal volunteering

There is overwhelming evidence that volunteering and peer support has a unique and valuable contribution to make to ‘Better Births’ outcomes (Spiby et al, 2015; Parents 1st and Institute for Voluntary...

Why breech birth matters

I was recently teaching a physiological breech birth training day for Breech Birth Network, CIC where I met a wonderful doula with a vast amount of knowledge on physiological birth and supporting...

Promoting leadership roles in midwifery