Against the grain: midwives' experiences of facilitating home birth outside of guidelines

Historically, childbearing women were generally young and healthy, yet societal changes and fertility treatments have meant women who are older or with pre-existing conditions becoming pregnant have...

‘Please treat me like a person’—respectful care during adolescent childbirth

The risk factors, health implications and socio-economic repercussions of adolescent pregnancy and early childbearing is widely covered in literature The World Health Organization ([WHO], 2018a) and...

Importance of vitamin D during the antenatal period for maternal well-being

The best source of vitamin D is exposure to natural sunlight and 90% of vitamin D is derived from sunlight with 10% derived from food and plant sources (Paxton et al, 2013; Cannell, 2019)...

The Poole approach to a smoke-free pregnancy

Targeted and personal support for pregnant women to stop smoking as early as possible in pregnancy is an important intervention to optimise the health of both unborn babies and their mothers, and for...

Obesity in pregnancy

As the world changes, new pandemics come to light, stress increases, anxiety skyrockets, and in order to combat all of that fear, many develop certain ways to cope Some take exercise, some find...

COVID-19: what are the physical and mental challenges?

The global emergence of COVID-19 a matter of months ago means that while its relatively thin evidence base expands, the need to interpret new findings with caution implies that the science of this...

Supporting women with breast cancer during pregnancy

Breast Cancer Now's website serves as a useful guide for up-to-date information on breast awareness

Neonatal transitional care: what it is and isn't

In the second article of my series exploring neonatal topics relevant to the midwife, I'd like to discuss the contemporary topic of neonatal transitional care (NTC) This is an area of particular...

COVID-19's effect on midwives' mental health

Acupressure And Acupuncture During Birth: An Integrative Guide For Acupuncturists And Birth Professionals

‘Birth Days’: a documentary film

A woman appears on screen; she cries deeply A friendly hand appears on screen, caresses the naked back of the woman, then her face A midwife tries to comfort a woman in labour The pregnant woman and...

Guidance for the provision of antenatal services during the COVID-19 pandemic

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus, a new strain of coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-COV-2) causing COVID-19, had...

Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy, lactation and infancy: why is it fundamental?

Vitamin D, known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, is made in the skin in response to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation, and once activated in the body to the hormone calcitriol (1,25 dihydroxy-vitamin D), it...

Measuring women's experiences of childbirth using the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R)

The 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) is a multi-factorial psychometrically robust tool developed for the purpose of measuring women's experiences of labour and childbirth (Hollins...

Reducing the incidence of stillbirth in black women

A stillbirth is a baby delivered at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy showing no signs of life, irrespective of when the death occurred The UK is noted to have one of the highest stillbirth rates in...