Latest Midwifery Stories

The growing trend to move miles away from hometowns and family for work is leaving many women feeling "˜ignorant and ill-equipped' to cope with pregnancy and childbirth. According to a University of Warwick study of motherhood, many women do not have the support and advice they need when they have a baby because they live too far from close family. The study also suggests the modern practice of encouraging new mothers to give birth in hospital means women often have no experience of...

UT Southwestern Medical Center's primary adult teaching hospital has cut its rate of preterm births by more than half in the past 15 years, even as national rates are rising, researchers have found.The drop at Parkland Memorial Hospital, from 10.4 percent in 1988 to 4.9 percent in 2006, was  associated with a program of strictly coordinated and easy-to-access care "” including prenatal care "”  for the largely minority, indigent population served by the county hospital, theUT...

Postpartum depression is a serious"”and often undiagnosed"”condition affecting about 10 to 12 percent of new mothers. Some of the causes might include personal history of depression, stressful life events, and lack of social, financial or emotional support. Left untreated, it can have lasting negative effects not only on the mother but on her child's development.In the first study of its kind, investigators at Harvard Medical School and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health...

More women are suffering severe problems arising from blood loss after delivery of a child, Australian researchers have found. Study leader Christine Roberts of the University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital and colleagues studied the birth hospital discharge records of the 500,603 women who had children in New South Wales during the study period. We identified 6,242 women who suffered severe adverse outcomes, including 22 who died in hospital. Of the 6242, 67 percent had an...

Towards Perinatal Ecology Based on Science MONTERREY, Mexico, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Join the movement toward more humanized birth practices with this exciting Birth Education Conference. The presentations will benefit those interested in learning the consequences of violative birth practices and advanced methods that will better meet the biological and psychological needs of mother and child. This important conference is for ObGyns, Perinatologists, Pediatricians, Doulas,...

PORTLAND, Oregon, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's Healthcare Associates, LLC, the Oregon-based obstetrics, gynecology, midwifery, maternal fetal medicine and genetics practice, has announced that Helen Welch, CNM, MSN, has been honored by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners State Award for Clinical Excellence. Ms. Welch, who is based at Women's Healthcare Associates' Peterkort South office in Portland, received the honor in a recent ceremony. American Academy of Nurse...

RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Access to high quality health care facilities is important for mothers to have healthy newborns. In the Philippines, six new birthing centers have made giving birth much safer and less worrisome for women in Pili, Camarines Sur. "We want to emphasize the importance of bringing pregnant women to health care facilities, which is the most important factor in preventing maternal and newborn mortality," said Dr. Sadia Parveen, Christian...

A new Swedish study finds that pregnant women who consume too much water during labor are at greater risk of hyponatraemia, a potentially dangerous condition that results when an excess of water causes levels of sodium in the bloodstream to fall.The study revealed that women who drank more than 2.5 liters during labor had a 25 percent greater chance of hyponatraemia, which can produce nausea, vomiting, headaches or more dangerous problems if left unchecked. In severe cases it can cause...

Supporters of home births are challenging politicians and the medical community to allow midwives to play a greater role in maternity care, and to scale back laws that limit their practice.Some 25 states have already taken such steps, and pending bills to broaden midwife care have received widespread support in many other states as well.An organization called the Big Push for Midwives marked President Barack Obama's inauguration with an aggressive e-mail campaign, urging the new...

Research into who cares for the carersWhilst losing a baby is distressing for parents, until now it has been less widely acknowledged that medical staff themselves can be affected by the losses experienced by their patients.New research from the University of Leicester shows that staff working in obstetrics and gynecology, caring for families experiencing loss, can also experience significant and clinical levels of distress. Senior staff and those with significant experience can be affected...