midwifery standards
Last chance saloon or a ray of hope? COP26 climate change and midwifery practice
In this important blog, Lorna Davies RM, PHD. PGCE(A), Principal Lecturer, School of Midwifery, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand, discusses the COP 26 climate summit. She calls for midwives, as public health professionals, to be aware and responsive to the current climate emergency. On 31st October 2021, the 26th UN......
Midwives under fire-the reality of life in Afghanistan
A news report this week bore the headline ‘Gunmen killed a midwife who refused to leave a woman in labour’. It is a harrowing read, including the story of Maryam Noorzad who was supporting a woman to give birth as terrorists burst into her hospital in 2020 and shot her......
Surviving in Today’s NHS: What Student Midwives Need to Know
During their training, student midwives learn essential skills for the preservation of life. For the safety of women and other birthing people, students learn how to identify and manage illness and emergency, how to facilitate physiological birth, how to support parents during necessary interventions, and how to lay the foundations......
Continuity of Carer – Workplace Toolkit
Delivering Midwifery Continuity of Carer at full scale: Guidance on planning, implementation and monitoring 2021/22 is the most recent guidance released from NHS England. Read the report here: Delivering Midwifery Continuity of Carer at full scale Get the toolkit here: Continuity of Carer Workforce Modelling Tool The purpose of the......
Strengthening global midwifery: Starting the journey in the United Arab Emirates
In an ongoing series of blogs, two UK midwives, Georgina Sosa and Maeve O’Connell, will be sharing their journey of supporting development of midwifery in another global setting. In this first post, Maeve reflects on the beginning of their role. Strengthening global midwifery: Starting the journey in the United Arab......
Science is not stopping at vaccines
The current global vaccine programme has been a huge success and raised the profile of science and its ability to analyse and change the biological world. COVID 19 might take the lives of 5 Million but Spanish Flu took an estimated 20 million, possibly more. Science, and in particular genetics......
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Working with a mother who has been diagnosed with cancer There are around 55,900 new breast cancer cases in the UK every year and research shows that breast cancer is reported in 1 in every 3,000 pregnancies. Most women are between 32 and 38 years old at diagnosis. Most are......
Love that birth physiology: even more!
Do we know enough? That is really the question. “We are not really trained that well in anatomy and physiology as far as birth is concerned. That gap in our knowledge really hinders us”. “Bringing it down to three major disruptions, the cause of labour dystocia are fear, medicalisation and......
Preventing Neural Tube Defects: Plans to add Folic acid to flour
Good nutrition in pregnancy is important for the wellbeing of the mother and the unborn fetus. A recent statement from the UK Government reveals plans to fortify white bread to improve folate consumption during pregnancy. This post discusses the reasons for the addition. The presence of folate (vitamin B9)......