Research into midwives' perceptions of loss in childbearing (Sheen et al, 2015) has shown that midwives who have not experienced the death of a woman in childbirth (maternal death) are unlikely to...
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's revised Code (NMC, 2015) imposes a duty on midwives to keep clear and accurate records relevant to their practice To discharge the duty set out in standard 10 of...
One thing that I have found particularly challenging over the past couple of months of working as a preceptee midwife is the number of postnatal women, or women in the early stages of labour, whom the...
Thalassaemia is one of the most common genetic blood disorders affecting women's ability to conceive and progress through a normal pregnancy and birth (Hanprasertpong et al, 2013) Currently, there are...
It is well recognised in the literature that the quality of the relationship between the midwife and the woman is central to the quality of care provided during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal...
For a woman hoping to start a family, discovering two lines on her urine pregnancy test may initiate profound excitement at a future vision of motherhood This is followed in the subsequent weeks by a...
Platelets are ‘anucleate’ cell fragments that circulate in the blood and are critical for haemostasis (Figure 1) They usually exist in a quiescent state but upon vascular injury they become activated...
In the past year, 5700 cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) were recorded in England (Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2016) These are the first statistics on FGM prevalence since...
Across the world, 222 million women would like to delay or prevent a pregnancy, but have no access to contraception This unmet need for family planning contributes to a third of maternal deaths and...
Research has found that, while newly qualified midwives are competent to practise, they would benefit from preceptorship programmes providing a structured, supportive culture to enable them to develop...
This paper aims to consider clinical decision-making within midwifery and critically analyse three decision-making approaches—the hypothetico-deductive approach, the intuitive-humanistic approach and...
This month's blog focuses on my transition from student to midwife—and I'm not afraid to say that I was apprehensive, to say the least, in starting as a newly qualified midwife
Choosing a name for a newborn is something that many parents take great time and care over, and there is a vast library of baby-name books available for parents to consult Midwives must be aware that,...
‘Let's start from a point of celebration: “You've had a baby, congratulations!” I think if we just start at that point, it's such a positive strategy…’ Gill Perks, lead midwife at Queen Charlotte's...
The use of unnecessary interventions in labour and birth continues to rise A rate of > 19% is seen as medically unnecessary by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Gibbons et al, 2010); in Europe,...
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