Midwifery Wisdom and Reflection

This information hub gathers together classic articles and blog posts written for and about midwives and midwifery practice.

Midwives have long been persecuted, frequently by from those who benefit from spreading falsehoods about us. They often do this because they seek to personally or professionally gain from undermining midwifery.

And yet midwifery care can make more of a positive difference to women, babies and families than anything else that is offered during the childbearing year. That’s shown in this Cochrane review, as well as here, and here and in this study. as well as in many other articles and studies on my website and elsewhere.

Almost all of my research has been about knowledge, though I’m interested in the entire span of ways in which we can know things, from science and statistics to experience and intuition.

Most of my books focus on evidence and science, while also looking at the wider issues and the questions that haven’t been asked or researched. But over the years, I have used my research and analysis skills to look into some of the areas that have been neglected, as well as to cover some fun topics.

This page gathers together all of my articles about midwifery practise and wisdom, including some of the lighter pieces that I have written over the years. It’s my hope that these articles might bring a smile or a knowing nod to some of the midwives out there, and that they may help the next generation as well.

 

Passing yarns forward: unravelling the dimensions of knitting and birth

How do midwives support women in bureaucratic health care systems?

Induction and synchronised swimming: Mary Cronk words of wisdom

Twenty birth kit essentials

Ten things you can do before clamping the umbilical cord…

Perineal care bundles: clinicians’ concerns

The Poo Taboo

Screening: what are we missing?

Tips for physiological birth of the placenta

Normality and Goalposts

The birth of a midwife?

And that was that!

Curiosity and the Caul

Pondering the post-birth tea break

Pinard Wisdom

The Rhombus of Michaelis

To feel, or not to feel?

Induction and synchronised swimming: Mary Cronk words of wisdom

The importance of illumination – the case of covert retention

What’s true, pussycat?

Tips for physiological birth of the placenta

Body wisdom: detecting birth by smell (part 1)

Top ten technologies that have improved the lives of women and midwives

Reclaiming the Art in Birth

Professionalisation of the Sacral Rub

What’s on the label?

Unpacking Sweeping Policies

Nutrition and the wisdom of craving

Is Apgar scoring a flexible friend?

The theoretical risk of water embolism

Bring back the bed bath?

A Tale of Two Women

Women, wizards and patchwork quilts

A seasonal story about chicks, pants and common sense…

Blaming the baby

We’ve always done it that way (part 1)

Towards Greener Birth

The Changing Face of A and P

Obesity: Naming, Blaming and Shaming

Hips and feet should never meet

Sterile water blocks: is it time to talk?

Are emergency mnemonics help(err)ful?

Untangling tocophobia

The ungentle art of persuasion

Pondering Domesticity…

Do midwives kiss babies?

The ALTE mysteries

Whatever happened to the precautionary principle?

How are you sleeping?

Being clear about continuity

Stimulating conversation: does cold water wake babies in utero? Part 1

Exploring the Exceptions

Is this going to change your management?

 

 

Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash

 


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