Both my births were traumatic in different ways. My first son was born after a very long back-to-back labour, I didn’t dilate past 7cm and eventually his oxygen levels plummeted to the point where I had to have a category 1 c-section. I was whisked into a make-shift theatre because the labour suite was in… Continue reading Blog series post #5: Birth trauma
As well as breakthroughs in miscarriage research, which I talked about in last week’s post, there has been constant progress in the field of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). It has been over 40 years since the first ‘test-tube’ baby, born in the same year as me and, since then, over 1.1 million IVF treatment cycles… Continue reading Blog series post #3: the next steps for IVF Part 1
Following on from last week’s post on pregnancy loss support, many research projects are helping to make leaps forward in understanding the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of pregnancy loss, and finding new treatments for prevention. The cell-free fetal DNA study is investigating whether analysis of cell-free fetal DNA could help ascertain genetic reasons for early miscarriages. Women… Continue reading Blog series post #2: Breakthroughs in miscarriage research
To start the year (albeit a bit late – I’ve only just recovered from Christmas meltdown season), I thought a series of blog posts would encourage me to actually make time to blog, whilst also covering a selection of research and campaign issues that I think are important to highlight. In this first post of… Continue reading Blog series post #1: Progress in pregnancy loss support
I went to see the writer David Sedaris this weekend on his latest book tour. Amongst the memories he recalled were of people who had stood out at after-show signings. Two days ago, he remembered, he met a lovely Japanese woman. As his latest book is a collection of diary entries, he asked whether she… Continue reading Together for change
Today marks the end of the second UK Maternal Mental Health Week, led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership. World Maternal Mental Health Day on Wednesday’s focus on ‘The Village’ emphasised the importance of giving access to the information and help that new mothers need. Much of the work needs to start with how we… Continue reading Maternal Mental Health Week 2018
The government announced recently that more than 3,ooo places on midwifery training courses will be created over the next four years. There also been the ‘promise’ to mothers that they will be seen by the same midwife throughout labour, pregnancy and birth by 2021. It’s an admirable aim, and one that would vastly improve the… Continue reading More midwives only half the answer
A few weeks ago, we had to take Gus to A&E. He’d banged his head and a couple of days later started being sick – over me – at 1 o’clock in the morning, yeah! So I spoke to the GP and was advised to go up to the hospital to get it checked out,… Continue reading A&E revisited
The Miscarriage Association has highlighted the publication of the guideline Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, produced by ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology). It provides up-to-date information about investigations into and treatment for recurrent miscarriage, reviews the research evidence and makes recommendations for clinical practice, with patients’ needs paramount when considering the best way to… Continue reading Europe reviews definition of recurrent miscarriage
Sleep..it’s been on my mind a lot recently because Gus has not yet slept through the night, whilst his older brother was dutifully snoozing through from about four months. This meant I was getting hung up on what I was doing wrong with Gus to try and explain why he was different. Then I decided… Continue reading Is a full night’s sleep overrated?
My Beautiful Diary of the Amazingly Mundane 