Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The hospital drawings of Barbara Hepworth

I have visited the Hepworth in Wakefield on a number of occasion, was struck (bear with me) by paintings by Alfred Wallis, a sailor from Devon who taught himself to paint after the death of his wife, and settled in St Ives (the one in Cornwall), where he was spotted by Ben Nicholson, and his work brought to the attention of Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. 

Here is Kettle's Yard's page about Wallis, and some images.

I am no art expert (that is other family members), but I was struck by the nature of the images.  The perspective of some seemed to vary from one item in the picture to another.  The most important things in the pictures were the sea and the boats, reflecting, I suppose, the life of a mariner.  One showed a ship sailing up a 45 degree slope, which must be what the real sea feels like sometimes.

And it was on one visit that I noticed in the bookshop a book about Barbara Hepworth's hospital drawings....   I had seen sculpture by her even before going to Wakefield, but not come across hospital drawings.

The story is told in this open access article in the Postgraduate Medical Journal.   One of Hepworth's children was in hospital, the surgeon was an amateur artist, and Hepworth ended up observing operations.   The article contains some of the resulting drawings.

There are some others in this open access article in the BMJ.

What's new in midwifery - 19th March 2019

Some recent things you may like to know about (a day early):

NHS England

Saving Babies’ Lives version two: a care bundle for reducing perinatal mortality


An overview of workforce data for nurses, midwives and health visitors in the NHS

National Institute of Health Research

NIHR Highlight: Management of Labour
Research evidence on some aspects of labour


NICE 

NICE surveillance decision to update CG190, Intrapartum care for healthy women and babies (CG190, 2014)


Public Health England

Stillbirth and Infant Mortality Tool  
A planning tool for examining factors that influence stillbirth and infant death at the population level, rather than in individual clinical care.


Formula milk

BMJ and sister journals ban ads for breast milk substitutes


Global health

Maternal and neonatal outcomes following C-section - African Surgical Outcomes Study

Traditional methods for managing illness in newborns and infants in an Arab society




Acknowledgements: STAT Morning Rounds, Embed Health Consortium Health Bulletin

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

What's new in midwifery - 6th March 2019

There was no post last week (I was on leave that day to get to see the excellent Matilda, at the Bradford Alhambra!).

Here are two things you may need to know about:

Infant Feeding Conference 2019
Being held at the University of Leicester on Thursday April 4th.   More details, and booking, here.


Atlas of Shared LearningImproving smoking cessation in pregnancy at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust