Warning: this blog post may contain tigers. As someone who lives with a serious food allergy, I have noticed some interesting changes in the information given on product labels over time. Over the years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the proliferation…
Are there good reasons to induce labour? That’s a question often posted when I talk or write about labour induction. It’s an understandable question. I have spent more than twenty years writing about how induction isn’t always beneficial. I’ve often…
How are trends in induction of labour changing? And has the publication of the controversial ARRIVE Trial affected this? Two recent studies have added to our knowledge about the effects of changing guidelines and narratives on trends in induction of…
Is there any evidence of benefit for induction for gestational diabetes? That’s a question I hear a lot. Women who have been told that they have gestational diabetes are often also offered early induction of labour. But is there any…
As a midwife, the labour plateau is a phenomenon with which I am very familiar. I have attended mostly physiological births, and it is common to see labour slowing, pausing or even stalling. There are – to put it in…
I have long been interested in the links between knitting and birth. I have a childhood memory of a midwife once casting off my knitting for me when my mum was busy. A simple act of kindness which cemented my…
Sara Wickham and Jean Sutton describe the Rhombus of Michaelis, an area of bone which plays an important role in labour and birth.
What time are babies most likely to be born? As a home birth midwife, I’m well aware that a good many babies like to be born in the deep of the night. They will often wait until everyone has gone…
Many women are offered a ‘stretch and sweep’ in late pregnancy. But what is this, why and how is it done, does it work and can you say no?
May 2021 saw the publication of a draft NICE guideline on inducing labour. NICE stands for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. It is the body that provides national guidance and advice to inform health and social care…