Thursday, December 19, 2019

A Sheffield carol

On moving to Sheffield, we discovered the Sheffield carol tradition.   In Victorian times, it is said, the church decided that certain carols were no longer to be sung.   People wanted to sing them, so they started singing them in pubs instead.   This continues to this day. 

A few of the carols in the tradition do still get sung in churches, to the same tune.  Others get sung in church, but to a different tune.   


Some are sung in church but are not carols ("All hail the power of Jesu's name", for one, known in the tradition as "Diadem").  

And a lot are not sung in church at all.  Many of those have tunes composed locally and therefore named after local places - Stannington and Malin Bridge, for two.

Here is a carol from the second of those categories - While Shepherds Watched, sung to the tune Pentonville.

The video was made by University of Sheffield Concerts, and gives you some information about the tradition.   Happy Christmas!




Wednesday, December 18, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 18th December 2019

Some recent things you might want to know about...

Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity (MBRRACE-UK)

Saving lives, improving mothers’ care: lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2015-17
Read more, and link to the report, on the HQIP site

Fetal and neonatal haemochromatosis

NHS England
Clinical commissioning policy: Maternal intravenous immunoglobulin for the prevention of allo-immune fetal and neonatal haemochromatosis

Global health

USAID's Maternal and Child Survival Program is ending

Hypertension in pregnancy

Clinical Knowledge Summaries - summary updated.

National Neonatal Audit Programme (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health)

2019 annual report on 2018 data
Read more, and link to the report, on the HQIP site.

Perinatal mental health

NHS England / NHS Improvement: Implementing routine outcome monitoring in specialist perinatal mental health services

Weight management interventions before, during and after pregnancy

Public Health England Knowledge and Library Services Evidence Briefing: Are healthy weight management interventions effective before, during and after pregnancy?



This is the last post of 2019.    Back in 2020, after Christmas and Hanukkah.  Season's greetings.


Acknowledgements: Caroline de Brun, PHE KLS; King's Fund Library Health Policy and Management Alert; Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 11th December 2019

Quite a lot of recent things, this week, that you might find useful to know about...

Research and practice

Intrusive thoughts in perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder (BMJ)

Elective and nonelective cesarean section and obesity among young adult male offspring: A Swedish population–based cohort study (PLOS Medicine)
Discussed in the Guardian, No link between caesarean delivery and obesity, research finds

Global health

Harare's heroine: how Esther Zinyoro made her home a maternity ward

Statistics

Birth characteristics in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics)
For 2018 - annual live births by sex, ethnicity, month, maternities by place of birth, multiple births, stillbirths, age of parents

Births by parents' characteristics, England and Wales, 2018 (government)
Annual live births age of mother and father, type of registration, median interval between births, number of previous live-born children and National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC).

Discussion relating to one of these at least in the Guardian, Record number of over-45s giving birth in England

NICE

Surveillance report NICE guideline (NG126)
Ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage: diagnosis and initial management
This guideline will be updated: read this page to find out why.

In the news

Singing the blues: how music can help ease postnatal depression
Melodies for Mums, an iniative that is part of a study being funded by the Wellcome.

Maternity care failings in Shropshire (BMJ)

Opinion

BMJ editorial
Screening for cytomegalovirus in pregnancy

Friday, December 06, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 6th December 2019

Yesterday's post was the news and media from the last week and a bit.

Here is the research, statistics and reports.


Research

Planned earlier delivery for late pre-eclampsia may be better for mothers (NIHR Signals)
Review of a study in the Lancet

Induction recommended for women still pregnant at 41 weeks (Guardian)
Report of research from the SWEPIS study, published in the BMJ, .

Health service programmes

ICON (Babies cry, you can cope) - programme launched in North Yorkshire to help parents manage normal infant crying and prevent abusive head injuries caused by shaking

Reports

Better for women report (RCOG): improving the health and wellbeing of women and girls

Statistics

Quarterly conceptions to women under 18, England and Wales, July - September 2018 (National Statistics)

Female genital mutilation, July - December 2019 (NHS Digital)

Maternity Services monthly statistics, August 2019 (NHS Digital)

Statistics on women's smoking status at time of delivery, England, quarter 2, 2019-20 (NHS Digital)

Childbearing for women born in different years, England and Wales: 2018 (National Statistics)
"The changing composition of families over time, comparing the fertility of women of the same age and the number of children they have had."

NICE

MedTech briefing - AmnioSense for unexplained vaginal wetness in pregnancy (MIB198)


Acknowledgements: NIHR, Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Thursday, November 21, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 21st November 2019

Some recent things (a day late)...

Leadership

Brave, Compassionate, Confident, Kind: Succeeding as a Woman in Health and Care (NHS Employers)

Global Health

Wise Choices for Life
A Christian organisation working in Uganda, which "empowers vulnerable men and women in the child bearing age group with reproductive health knowledge and skills to break the poverty cycle".

In the news

Leaked report exposes maternity scandal at Shropshire NHS trust



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 13th November 2019

Some recent things...

Statistics

Breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks after birth (Public Health England)

Reproductive health: 2019 update (Official Statistics)
Update of profile indicators, which include birth outcomes

NHS Maternity Statistics 2018-19 (NHS Digital)
Statistics on maternity activity in English hospitals, including method of onset of delivery, delivery method, place of delivery, baby's first feed type, maternal alcohol intake, and folic acid intake.

Summary from the Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin:


  • Use of analgesics or anaesthetics before or during delivery has dropped;
  • The number of all deliveries is at its lowest level in a decade;
  • Deliveries for women under 20 have more than halved in a decade;
  • But deliveries for women in their thirties have increased by seven per cent  


Case studies

Humber, Coast and Vale Local Maternity System, covering several CCGs in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, providing maternity services.   Website details services and has information for expectant mothers.



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin, King's Fund Library Health Management and Policy Alert

Wednesday, November 06, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 6th November 2019

Some recent things....

NHS Improvement

Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme

The programme aims to improve the safety and outcomes of maternal and neonatal care, and contribute to the national ambition, set out in Better Births of reducing the rates of maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths, and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 50% by 2025

Statistics

Compendium: infant mortality (NHS Digital)

Maternity statistics - monthly statistics, July 2019 (NHS Digital)

Maternity statistics, England, 2018-19 (NHS Digital)

News

Revealed: 47 pregnant women in prisons in England and Wales (Guardian)

We are there as a woman is induced to deliver her stillborn baby. The toll on doctors is heavy (Guardian)



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Thursday, October 31, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 31st October 2019

Some recent things, a day late.

Statistics

Newborn hearing screening: standards data report for April 2017 - March 2018

Global health

USAID Maternal and Child Survival Program
This comes to an end this year and there is a webinar to look at its achievements.
Book a ticket.

Research news

Post-term pregnancy research cancelled after six babies die (Guardian)



Grateful acknowledgement to the Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 23rd October 2019

Some recent things you might want to be aware of.

Baby Loss Awareness Week

This was 9-15 October, but the Babyloss Awareness Week website is still present and has stories and more information.  The awareness week involves several organisations working in the areas of pregnancy and baby loss. 

NICE consultations

Specialist neonatal respiratory care for babies born preterm: quality standard consultation

News

'My teeth moved so much I needed braces' – readers on how childbirth changed them
Short accounts, in the Guardian.




Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin, the London Evening Standard

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 9th October 2019

Some recent things...


Research

Being ‘A Google Mom’ or Securely Monitored at Home: Perceptions of Remote Monitoring in Maternity Care
Journal of Advanced Nursing, a study from Finland

Multicultural coping experiences of parents following perinatal loss: A meta‐ethnographic synthesis
Journal of Advanced Nursing, a study from Spain

NICE

NICEimpact: maternity and neonatal care
A report on the impact of NICE guidance on maternity and neonatal care.

NICE are consulting on prenatal repair for open neural tube defects in the fetus - fetoscopic repair  and open repair

Mental health

Centre for Mental Health
An economic evaluation of specialist counselling after baby loss

In the news

Kaz Cooke (author of Up the Duff): women were in the dark about their pregnancies. Now there’s too much advice

Vaginal fluid transplants could cure bacterial vaginosis [a condition that can have complications for pregnant women]

Baby dies in UK prison after inmate 'gives birth alone in cell'

and on the same story

Multiple inquiries ordered into death of baby in UK prison

Experience: my wife lost her memory while giving birth [as a result of eclampsia]


Acknowledgements: King's Fund Library Health Management and Policy Alert, Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin.

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 2nd October 2019

Some recent things...

University of Leicester members are welcome to contact me for advice on accessing full text of the research cited below.    Other readers should contact their librarian!

Research

Enhanced communication and staff training could improve the experience of maternity services for asylum-seeking women (NIHR Signals)
Summary of research reported in Midwifery.

Treatment for liver disorder in pregnancy ineffective, finds study
News item about the PITCHES trial of ursodeoxycholic acid for intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.  The trial was published in the Lancet.

Planned delivery reduces impact of potentially fatal pregnancy complication, trial finds
Report of the PHOENIX trial of management for preterm pre-eclampsia.  The trial was published in the Lancet.


In the news

Babies exposed to air pollution have greater risk of death - study
Study being presented at the European Respiratory Society annual meeting.

Historic find suggests bottle-feeding not a modern phenomenon

Transgender man loses court battle to be registered as father

How a pioneering study of child health has influenced a generation of parents (about the Children of the 90s study)



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 18th September 2019

Some recent things...

NICE guidance

BMJ discussion of updated NICE guidance about hypertension in pregnancy

Audit

National Maternity and Perinatal Audit: Clinical Report 2019

Statistics

Women's smoking status at time of delivery, quarter 1, 2019-20 (NHS Digital)

Mental health

Mental health and the journey to parenthood (Healthwatch)
Mental health experiences before, during and after pregnancy

News

New specialist FGM support clinics
Guardian
NHS England

Air pollution particles found on foetal side of placentas - study

Research is here (if you are University of Leicester and cannot get access, contact the Library).

UK maternity services: audit finds wide variation in birth complications (BMJ)

Discusses findings of National Maternity and Perinatal Audit: Clinical Report 2019

Postnatal checks for new mothers need to be properly funded, charity tells government (BMJ)

Opinion

Repeat after me: Vagina is not a dirty word (Guardian)
About the terminology used in health care consultations, among other things.


Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, September 04, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 4th September 2019

Some things you might like to know about.

Statistics

Maternity statistics
April 2019
May 2019 

Quarterly conceptions to women aged under 18 years (England)
April to June 2018


Public Health England

Generation genome and the opportunities for screening programmes
Includes opportunities in screening for fetal anomalies, sickle cell and thalassemia, infectiosu diseases in pregnancy, and newborn blood spot screening and newborn hearing screening.

News

Lots this time...

The man who gave birth (Guardian podcast)
Freddy McConnell is a trans man who decided to begin the process of conceiving and delivering his own child.   The film Seahorse is about this, and the podcast is an interview with Freddy.
There is also a video, If all men got pregnant, it'd be taken more seriously: behind the scenes of Seahorse

Doctors can perform C-section if woman loses mental capacity, judge rules

Not the Booker: Please Read This Leaflet Carefully by Karen Havelin review – an angry story of pain
Review of a book about the author's experience of endometriosis.

Woman who gave birth alone in Denver jail cell sues city authorities



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 28th August 2019

Maternite, by Renoir
Maternite, or, L'enfant au sein, in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.   Read more about it in French here

Some recent things...

NICE Consultations

Intrapartum care: women with existing medical conditions or obstetric complications and their babies: quality standard consultation
This is a draft quality standard, due for publication in February 2020, and you can comment until 23rd September at 5 pm.


Statistics

Female genital mutilation


Global health

Developing and applying a "living guidelines" approach to WHO recommendations on maternal and perinatal health
"Living guidelines" is a continuous approach to updating recommendations.   There are links to the recommendations themselves.


Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin, HIFA email discussion list.  And my wife Suzanne for taking me to some art galleries in Paris!

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 21st August 2019

Some recent (some less so) things you might like to know about:



Statistics

Birth summary tables, England and Wales 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/birth-summary-tables-england-and-wales-2018

Births in England and Wales: summary tables
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/birthsummarytables

Antenatal and screening data January - March 2019
via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-screening-programmes-kpi-reports-2018-to-2019



Research

Antibiotics after assisted vaginal delivery (NIHR Signals)

Teenage mothers' experience of repeat pregnancies (in London, published in Journal of Advanced Nursing)



NICE

Preterm labour and birth - guideline (NG25)

Preterm labour and birth - quality standard (QS135)



News

Pregnant women left without midwives as home-birth service closes (One to One Midwives, which works in Essex and the north west of England)

The five: medical biases against women

Birth rate in England and Wales at all-time low

Tommy's National Centre for Maternity Improvement
Initiative launched by RCOG, RCM and Tommy's


Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin, King's Fund Library Health Management and Policy Alert

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 24th July 2019

Some recent things...


Global health

Cost of global push to prevent women dying in childbirth to increase sixfold (Guardian, reporting research done by UNFPA and Johns Hopkins)

Case studies

Women in East Hull will have the same midwife throughout their pregnancies as part of a plan to offer more personalised maternity care (the "Primrose Team")

News

Hospital trust admits sepsis care failings after woman's death
The woman was Sophie Burgess, who died 48 hours after giving birth following sepsis and HELLP syndrome

More about sepsis in pregnancy and after childbirth: RCOG Green Top Guideline  (after pregnancy);  (in pregnancy).
More about HELLP syndrome (Haemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets syndrome): there is a little in this Clinical Knowledge Summaries item about hypertension in pregnancy.   The NICE Quality Standard on Hypertension in pregnancy (updated this month) may also be useful.


Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 10th July 2019

Some recent things you might like to know about.

Statistics

Statistics on women's smoking status at time of delivery: England, quarter 4, 2018/19 (NHS Digital)

Baby food

Commercial infant and baby food and drink: evidence review (Public Health England)
"A report setting out the evidence for action on food and drink product ranges targeted at babies and young children, and PHE’s advice to government."

Sonographers

Right touch assurance for sonographers based on risk of harm arising from practice.  Report by the Professional Standards Authority to Health Education England.


Acknowledgements: King's Fund Library Health Management and Policy Alert; Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Thursday, June 13, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 13th June 2019

Some recent things you might like to know about (a day late)...

Department of Health and Social Care

Department of Health and Social Care response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee report on ‘First 1000 days of life'.


News

UK among least family-friendly countries in OECD, survey finds

'A mother is scared to hold her baby in case he dies in her arms': my job as a health visitor (includes mention of perinatal mental health)



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 15th May 2019

Some recent things you might need to know about...

Research

Association between Apgar scores of 7 to 9 and neonatal mortality and morbidity: population based cohort study of term infants in Sweden

Antibiotics after assisted childbirth could almost halve maternal infections
BMJ news reportGuardian report

The research itself is in the Lancet, and is open access.


In the news

The story of a male midwife


Other things

This week is Christian Aid Week in the UK.   Christian Aid is a church organisation that works with church partners outside the UK, and the theme for this year is maternal health and reducing maternal mortality, with information available from the Christian Aid website at 

Last Friday's Google Doodle was Lucy Wills, a haematologist who investigated anaemia of pregnancy.  Read this from the James Lind Library, to find out more about her and how Marmite fits into her research.

Wednesday, May 08, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 8th May 2019

Some recent things you might want to know about...

Research, global health

Local adaption of intrapartum clinical guidelines, United Republic of Tanzania (Bulletin of the WHO)


Case studies from NICE Shared Learning

Ensuring compliance with NICE guidance significantly improves outcomes in Multiple Pregnancy – East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust


In the news

Risk of obesity can be accurately predicted in babies, study finds (Guardian)
Report about "Is it possible to accurately predict overweight at age 10-12 years based on information at birth and during the first year of life?", an abstract from Dutch researchers, presented at the recent European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow.   (I have not found the abstract itself)


Local Government Association

Supporting young parents to reach their full potential.  



Acknowledgements: Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, May 01, 2019