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…
Revisiting the world wide wonder
Category: Articles
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;…
Pinard Wisdom (part 2)
Over the years, I have been repeatedly asked by student midwives for a reference to an article that gives basic information on how to use a Pinard to listen to a baby’s heartbeat, either to supplement learning in practice, or…
Pinard Wisdom (part 1)
Over the years, I have been repeatedly asked by student midwives for a reference to an article that gives basic information on how to use a Pinard to listen to a baby’s heartbeat, either to supplement learning in practice, or…
The wisdom of storks
The stork is well loved as an image associated with birth and midwives; a good number of midwifery practices in the English-speaking world feature the word in their name, and images of the birds often appear on logos and web…
Untangling tocophobia
A year or so ago, a pregnant woman asked me a really good question, which I answered briefly in a blog post (Wickham 2016). ‘What is it called,’ she asked, ‘when you’re fearful of medicalisation?’ I couldn’t come up with…
The perils of cyberchondria
My working day got off to a slow start on the day I originally wrote this article, mainly because of Wikipedia! Within minutes of turning my computer on, I was contacted by a woman whose births I attended a few…
A potpourri of festive pondering on women, birth and midwifery
As someone who is fully subscribed to the notion that ongoing learning and growth are intrinsic, essential and joyful elements of living, searching out new knowledge is a big part of my daily life. Some of that knowledge gets turned…
Number Crunching
When I first wrote the article that this blog post is based upon, I had just finished reading a superb book, The Tyranny of Numbers by economist David Boyle (2001). In it, he critiqued our society’s reliance on and obsession…
Vitamin K Resources
This post is a collection of links to articles and resources that I have authored on the subject of vitamin K and I have now updated it to reflect the publication of the second edition of my book – which…