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July 12 – Midwives have hailed a global summit on family planning held in London, UK, yesterday as “historic”. The event, backed by the World Health Organisation sought to boost the supply of good quality contraception to the world’s poorest countries. It said some 120 million women and girls should be spared coercion and discrimination [...]

June 22 – The NHS needs to provide consistent and better quality care for women who experience serious problems in early pregnancy, experts say today. Pain and bleeding at this stage of pregnancy may herald miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy. It can be a “very frightening time” for a woman, according to the National Institute [...]

May 17 – Health visitors are to be trained to detect post-natal depression, it was announced yesterday. They will also work with midwives to provide “expert joined up” care focusing on the emotional well-being of new parents, it was announced. There will also be monitoring of how the service cares for parents who have lost [...]

May 8 – Some of the techniques used to help women get pregnant carry a significant risk of leading to birth defects, researchers have warned. But one technique – embryo freezing – reduces the risk, according to Australian researchers. The major study of more than 300,000 births finds that babies born through assisted reproduction face [...]

April 5 – Training on the management of shoulder dystocia should extend to all maternity staff, say new guidelines published yesterday. The condition occurs when one of the baby’s shoulders becomes stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone during childbirth, preventing the birth from proceeding. The baby may have extensive arm damage or even die. Problems [...]

February 8 – Cleaning a newborn’s umbilical cord at birth can help to limit infections, experts say today. Serious infections cause about a third of global neonatal deaths (within 28 days of birth) each year, and up to half of neonatal deaths where death rates are high. One “key entry point” for germs is the [...]

February 1 – Two midwives who have used hypnosis to help women overcome their fear of childbirth have won a major award. Midwives Donna Burns and Alison Fyfe first set up their hypnobirthing class in 2009. They found that many women had fear of childbirth – and have been honoured for helping women to overcome [...]

December 19 – Britain is now producing little more than one baby for every woman who reaches her 30th birthday, according to new figures.  The figures represent a reduction in the birth-rate of younger women of about 11 per cent in just 15 years. The figures suggest that families are getting smaller and parents older [...]

December 2 – Nearly 30 per cent of births in London are now by caesarean section, it was revealed yesterday. Nationally nearly one in four births takes place under the surgeon’s knife, according to the figures. And although the rate – 24.8 per cent – has not increased in the last year, hospitals are bracing [...]

October 17 – A new drive to reduce caesarean section rates is in danger from the wrong kind of counselling, experts said today. Recent UK guidelines have advised that women who say they are afraid of going into labour may need specialist mental health support. But experts today say these women will not be identified [...]