Sara Wickham revisits her favourite and most popular blog posts from 2018.
The language of the complicated
Sara Wickham discusses how our languages focuses more on complication and risk than normality.
In celebration of plateaus
Why some research results are more likely to be published than others
A Cochrane review has confirmed that some research results are more likely to get published than others, which is one reason why evidence may not be as reliable as some people think.
Vitamin K: the stories behind the evidence
A quote from Sara Wickham about the ‘stories behind the evidence’ relating to vitamin K.
Word-thought for the day: replacing risk with chance
Midwifery care is shown to lead to better outcomes (again)
Research shows that midwifery care in pregnancy reduces the chance of small and low birthweight babies as well as of preterm birth.
Bring back the bed bath?
Positive benefits of physiological birth
Sara Wickham highlights a research study showing the transformative benefits of physiological birth.
Facebook, we have a problem…
Your birth: stories from midwifery-led areas
Sara Wickham reviews a new book in which women share their stories of giving birth in midwife-led areas in Wales.
Induction of labour: the gap between theory and reality
Sara Wickham looks at research showing the gap between gap between what women need and want and the reality of what they experience when undergoing induction of labour.
Oxytocin-related resources
Routine early induction in healthy women not supported by evidence
A systematic review has concluded that induction prior to post-term is associated with few beneficial outcomes and several adverse outcomes.
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Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder that many women don’t know how to trust their bodies or have a sense that decisions about their body are theirs and theirs alone to make?
Placental birth resources
Further thoughts on the third stage
Sara Wickham raises questions about how we measure blood loss during and after the birth of the placenta.
Seven useful words for the birth room…
Work, health and emotional lives of midwives in the United Kingdom: The UK WHELM study
A senior midwife has shared her thoughts on a study looking into the work, health and emotional lives of midwives in the UK which does not appear to have been publicised by the organisation that commissioned it, the Royal College of Midwives.
Birthing Your Placenta: now available!
Birthing Your Placenta: the third stage of labour … updated version available from 20th September 2018!
Birthing Your Placenta: new book AND new online course!
Home births – where are we heading?
Ten ways I can help midwifery students
Sara Wickham offers a variety of resources for student midwives and others studying birth-related areas.
We need a better way of defining postpartum haemorrhage…
It was so good to see a paper in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology this month calling for better definitions of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). Borovac-Pinheiro et al (2018) write that, “The current definition of [postpartum haemorrhage] is inadequate…
What’s true, pussycat?
What’s in a name?
Review shows that “evidence is lacking” to induce labour before 42 weeks of pregnancy
A review of trials comparing induction of labour with expectant management has concluded that evidence is lacking for the recommendation to induce labour at 41 weeks instead of 42 weeks for the improvement of perinatal outcome.
Labour progress resources
This post offers a summary of labour and progress related resources that are right here and freely available on my website. Let’s start with some thoughts on why normal birth matters to women, some studies related to normal birth, why…
The Way of Birth
Bearing witness: disrespectful maternity care
Sara Wickham writes about an important study published in Birth which further illustrates the disrespectful care and abuse that some women experience during childbirth.
Untangling the Maternity Crisis
Untangling the Maternity Crisis: an important new book detailing the problems faced within maternity care.
On individualisation…
Objectivity, religion and belief…
I was really interested to see a feature in a recent edition of the British Medical Journal entitled “Why religious belief should be declared as a competing interest”, in which Richard Smith and Jane Blazeby suggested that people’s faith can…
The Rhombus of Michaelis
More evidence on how to keep birth normal
Large Carbetocin trial published
The results of a large trial on Carbetocin have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Asking different questions…
An important paper has been published in Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care this month, in which expert maternity care researchers from around the world have come together to call for a new approach to research. In ‘Asking different questions: A…
Why birth-related decision making is trickier than ever…
A number of features of our modern culture have made making birth-related decisions trickier than ever. Our TV, cinema and computer screens are filled with dramatic and unrealistic portrayals of birth, which often make it out to be ‘risky’ and…
The risk-managed birth ball
This is one of my favourite articles that I have written, and I realised this week that it is now 15 years old. I am sharing it again in the hope that others will enjoy it too 🙂 Last month…
Less is more … Oxytocin
Standardisation of Care: a contradiction in terms
Further confirmation of home birth safety
A systematic review and meta-analysis has further confirmed the safety of home birth for healthy women, even if they are having their first baby. After comparing data from births planned at home birth, in birth centres and in hospital, researchers…
What’s Right For Me? Now updated and available!
The decisions that we make about our pregnancy and childbirth journeys can shape our experiences, health and lives, as well as those of our families. But many of those decisions are complex, confusing and overwhelming. They are often made harder…
Knowing the way…
“Today a pregnant womyn who wants a loving presence, no interventions, and a sense of excitement and joy for the upcoming mystery has to birth against a modern current of pressure bigger than a tsunami: a force that finds its…
Expert midwives and perineal care during birth
A study published in Women and Birth has offered further insight into the knowledge and skills used by expert midwives in keeping women’s perineums intact during birth. Led by Cecily Begley, the researchers interviewed midwives in New Zealand and Ireland…
Ten things I wish every woman knew about induction of labour: the article
In modern Western culture, most women know about induction of labour before they even become pregnant. They know that it is suggested when it is felt that it would be safer for the baby to be born than to stay…
New systematic review on chlorhexidine
It feels rather fitting to have spotted this new systematic review and meta-analysis in the same week that we are running our Group B Strep Explored online course! Freely availably in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, the paper by Bell et…
Revisiting the world wide wonder
A few things happened to me last week which led me to decide to re-share an article that I first wrote in 2002. First, someone asked for it, which is always interesting with an older article. I’m aware that students…
Inducing Labour: making informed decisions – now available!
I am so happy to be able to announce the launch of the revised and updated second edition of Inducing Labour: making informed decisions, a book which helps parents, professionals and others to understand the process and the evidence relating…
Book and instagram news!
I have two pieces of news to share today! First, a new, shiny, updated version of my book Inducing Labour: making informed decisions launched on Thursday, 10th May! The new version includes discussion of new research, practice-related issues and thinking…
A Midwife in Amish Country
There is a simple way through which I can quickly measure my love of a book in which a midwife shares her story; the number and length of sittings in which I read it. When I realised that what I…
Why do women value midwifery care?
This month has seen the publication of a study which is really important to women, midwives and everybody involved in maternity care, because it looks even more deeply at a really vital question: what it is that women value in…
Evidence of the importance of listening to women
A research study which described and explored women’s ‘gut instincts’ during pregnancy has provided further support for the idea that it is vital to listen to women and to pay attention to other ways of knowing such as intuition (Warland…
Vitamin K and tongue tie division
A few weeks ago, Cathy wrote, “Sara, what are your thoughts on tongue tie division with baby who hasn’t had vit k? If mother has made informed decision, can a medical professional decline to do division?” Well, as is so…
The birth of a midwife?
About sixteen years ago, I attended my friend Megan’s home birth in what was at the time a new role for me; as the support person for her 3 year old daughter Eleanor. Eleanor and I had a marvellous time;…
Another way of supporting women who wish to decline
A paper published in an Australian midwifery journal has proposed a woman-centred framework for documentation and communication when women decide to decline aspects of maternity care. This is an important issue, as the authors note in the background to their…
Happy Spring!
Happy Spring! And happy Autumn, to our friends down under! I’ve not written a blog post for today, as I’m hoping you’re all enjoying some time off, but I wanted to say hello to anyone who was online, whether at…
Post-term pregnancy and induction of labour resources
The subjects of ‘post-term’ pregnancy and induction of labour have been close to my heart for a long while, and were the topic of my PhD thesis (2008). This post lists all of the resources on this topic that are…
Continuing the electronic fetal monitoring debate
“Four centuries ago, the Catholic Church declared heliocentrism to be heretical, banned all heliocentric books, and ordered Galileo to refrain from holding, teaching, or defending heliocentric ideas. A similar effort is taking place today. It seeks to suppress debate over…