Birth in the 21st century

The pandemic has had a significant impact on pregnant women who have delivered their babies in these past months. There was concern amongst some midwives and Spanish organisations about the spreading...

COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy

Supporting the future of midwifery

Some individuals display and employ task-related behaviours that are primarily focussed on undertaking a series of events or actions in order to achieve the end goal (Forsyth, 2010), whereas...

Human rights and maternity care

The first symptom of coronavirus for Birthrights, besides staff getting to grips with the work and home-schooling juggle, was a huge increase in enquiries to our advice line. We received nearly five...

Improving maternal and child health outcomes through active male partner involvement in perinatal care

Table 1 shows the sociodemographic characteristics of 241 sampled respondents. The mean age of the participant was 27.16±3.48 with an age range of 22–45 years. The distribution of the gender...

Perceived risk of COVID-19 acquisition and maternal mental distress

Perceived risk is a determinant factor for the way people perceive, judge and react to the potential risks of specific hazards (Mitchell, 2015). People assess risks using a combination of...

698 mothers and babies, 38 390 nappy changes: what did we learn?

With the advent of disposable nappies and baby wet wipes, nappy area care may seem simple and straightforward. However, there are still unanswered questions about IDD such as why some babies seem more...

What is the significance of hearing a heart murmur during the newborn physical examination?

A critical literature review was chosen because, when conducted with rigour, this can establish what is known or unclear on a topic (Grant and Booth, 2009; Aveyard, 2014). A narrative synthesis...

J Marion Sims and the ‘forgotten women of gynaecology’

‘To the indomitable courage of these long-suffering women, more than to any one other single circumstance, is the world indebted for the results of these persevering efforts. Had they faltered, then...

More than a statistic: compassion in baby loss training

Baby loss and bereavement care is not something that is highly acknowledged within the statutory guidance within nursing and midwifery. The term ‘bereavement’ itself has no definitive explanation...

When Breastfeeding Sucks by Zainab Yate

When it comes to pregnancy, there are a lot of topics to discuss but one that gets swept under the table can be the negatives of breastfeeding. One such negative is aversion: when a mother feels...

Identifying adverse childhood experiences in maternity services

The aim of the project was to introduce into maternity services a screening tool for women and their partners at booking, in order to identify adverse childhood exper iences (ACEs) and improve...

The rise of non-traditional pregnancies through assisted reproductive technologies

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is when an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the human body, usually in a culture dish (Franklin, 1997). This technique was developed by Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards, a...

SARS-CoV-2: do corticosteroids for fetal lung maturation worsen maternal or fetal outcomes?

The SARS-Cov-2 virus is a virulent pathogen which first emerged in December 2019 in Hubei province of China. This virus is thought to cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and the associated illness...

Raising awareness in a digital age

Kicks Count aims to reduce the UK's high stillbirth and neonatal death rate by raising awareness of baby movements. Kicks Count started out in 2009 under the name Count the Kicks and changed to Kicks...