Wednesday, November 18, 2020

What's new in midwifery - 18th November 2020

Some things you may want to know about.   Apologies for the long gap since the last list.  Maybe monthly is more realistic, or maybe I need to be more organised.

First, COVID, a systematic review by three Ethiopian authors on The effect of coronavirus infection (SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV) during pregnancy and the possibility of vertical maternal-fetal transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the open access European Journal of Medical Research.

The Guardian reports that mothers are needlessly separated from their babies after birth, and has articles about pregnant women in the second wave and about whether birth partners are allowed to be present.

While reading one of those, the NHS - Pregnancy and coronavirus site came up as an advert.   Not a new site, I am sure, but to help raise its profile, I mention it here.

Johns Hopkins University's Center for Humanitarian Health maintain a collection of resources about COVID-19, breastfeeding, infant feeding and breast milk.   

AlignMNH: Collective Action for Maternal Newborn Health is a campaign funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in association with USAID, and has its launch event today.

Recent news coverage includes articles about microplastics in bottle fed babies (1) and a report of American research finding that bottle fed babies are more at risk of exposure to lead because of lead in tap water.


The Guardian reports RCM criticism of staffing levels and has the story of Ernest Boateng, who lost his wife to COVID following an emergency caesarean.  He is campaigning for pregnant women to be allowed to work from home or have extended pregnancy leave.


Two sets of statistics - NHS maternity statistics for July 2020, and for 2019-2020.


Then there are two new Cochrane systematic reviews, on local cooling for relieving pain from perineal trauma sustained during childbirth and on interventions for preventing mastitis after childbirth.


The Journal of Advanced Nursing has published a meta analysis on the effects of upright positions during the second stage of labour for women without epidural analgesia.


If you have problems accessing any of the research articles, ask your librarian (if you have one, of course!).

(1) Published in Nature Food.



Acknowledgements: King's Fund Library; Evidence Alerts, HIFA

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