by Laura Tugores & Octavia Wiseman During the Covid19 pandemic midwives and other front-line workers challenged PHE’s guidelines which said that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not needed when caring for asymptomatic patients. In this blog post, two community midwives talk about what this was like for them. Now that guidance has finally been changed […]
Month: April 2020
Normalising abortion: How do we get there?
By Carrie Purcell1, Fiona Bloomer2, Lesley Hoggart3, Karen Maxwell1, Sam Rowlands4 The COVID-19 pandemic, and current ‘lockdown’ situation in the UK, have seen unprecedentedly fast-paced reorganisation of healthcare services, with many exploring the potential offered by telemedicine. Until this week, abortion care seemed to be an exception to this, with women still being legally required […]
Ensuring personalised care for pregnant women during COVID-19
During a period of lockdown where many of our basic freedoms have been limited, the autonomy and safety of pregnant women can easily be overlooked. In a blogpost last week, Anna Nelson and Chloe Romanis discussed concerns raised about the availability of home birthing during the COVID-19 lockdown. I spoke with Sarah Noble, Head of […]
Pregnancy Planning Apps May Be Inaccurate: Expert Responses
Many popular fertility and pregnancy planning apps may be inaccurate, suggest the results of a scoping review of the available evidence, published online in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. Period tracking apps were downloaded at least 200 million times in 2016 alone. However, the review if 18 papers reported that many apps seem to have […]
Limits on gay men’s blood donations reduced in USA
The FDA (Food and Drug Authority) issues guidance on who can donate blood. During the crisis supply has dropped so there is a need to increase donor numbers. In response, the FDA has changed the rules for men who have sex with men. Previously FDA guidance demanded a 12 month deferral period between sex (for […]
Home-Birthing and Free-Birthing in the era of COVID-19
Anna Nelson and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis For many pregnant people[1] due to give birth soon there is considerable anxiety about how COVID-19 will impact birthing plans. Those who have planned for home-births are concerned that their plans will be jeopardised by the announcements from some NHS Trusts that they are suspending home-birthing services. Private home-birth […]