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Amendments in electronic fetal monitoring and intermittent auscultation

Interpretation of cardiotocography (CTG) remains a controversial topic, despite attempts by the national professional bodies to standardise the terminology and decision-making systems The National...

Summer reading: The NHS Litigation Authority Annual Report

Readers in England will be aware of the role of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), the body which manages litigation on behalf of the NHS in England. In Scotland, the equivalent is the Clinical...

In memory of Dr Kate Granger

On 23 July 2016, Dr Kate Granger—who campaigned tirelessly to improve communication in health care despite her own deteriorating health from an aggressive form of cancer—sadly passed away, aged just...

Taking time for self-care

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...

Keeping accurate records

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...

Giving birth but fearing death: Perceptions and precautions in Scotland in the early modern period

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...

Midwifery preceptorship: The next chapter

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...

Decision-making in midwifery: A tripartite clinical decision

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...

Thalassaemia in pregnancy: Contemporary care for a timeless disease

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...

Creating and maintaining compassionate relationships with bereaved parents after perinatal death

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...

Non-invasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome in general maternity services

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 in pregnancy: Their role and function in disease

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...

‘We've come so far but there is still more to be done to eradicate FGM’

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...

Leading Safe Choices: Family planning in South Africa and Tanzania

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...

Personalising care for every woman

Fulfilling its meaning of ‘with woman’, midwifery has been present throughout the centuries. The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM, 2011) refers to midwifery as one of the oldest and most...

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