By Jane Meyrick, Michelle Cutland and Rae Adams Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) is increasingly recognised and the impact often lifelong. With at least 15% of girls/young women and 5% of boys/young men experiencing some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16 years the role of sexual health is crucial. Sexual Health Follow-up (SHFU) […]
Category: Latest Research
You’re invited – jump into implementation science and quality improvement
By Cati Brown-Johnson, Sonia Rose Harris & Lisa Goldthwaite In the February issue of the Journal, Hofmeyr and colleagues describe a postpartum family planning quality improvement initiative in a large public hospital in Botswana. Their initiative aimed to improve postpartum contraceptive counseling and provision, particularly efforts to integrate intrauterine device services into clinical practice while […]
Women’s needs for lifestyle risk reduction engagement during the interconception period
By Sharon James, Jessica Moulton, Anisa Assifi, Jessica Botfield, Kirsten Black, Mark Hanson & Danielle Mazza The potential impact of lifestyle risks such as smoking, unhealthy diet, unsafe alcohol consumption, and inadequate exercise, increases with the mother’s age and parity. While lifestyle risks are responsible for many chronic conditions, changing lifestyle behaviours during pregnancy […]
Abortion travels in and outside France: Women’s experiences, costs, and opinions of the abortion law
By Laura Rahm, Silvia de Zordo, Joanna Mishtal, Giulia Zanini, Camille Garnsey, Derek Clougher & Caitlin Gerdts This is the first study contrasting the experience of women residing in France and traveling for abortion services inside and outside their country of residence. Based on the main findings of a mixed-methods research project funded by […]
Exploring the toxic relationship between mental illness and miscarriage
By Ray Jerram Dr Nathan Hodson Miscarriage and mental illness are common but often hidden life experiences. Emerging evidence reveals the toxic symbiotic relationship between these two stigmatized parts of life. To some extent their connection may be unsurprising, considering how we increasingly recognise the pervasiveness of psychiatric issues, as well as the trauma of […]
Non-binary people who use drugs are an underserved group at high risk of harm
By Dr Dean Connolly An ongoing body of work examining alcohol and other drug (substance) use by transgender (trans) people began with a systematic review which sought to report on the prevalence and correlates of substance use in this community. We systematically searched four databases with broad inclusion criteria. More than forty studies were included […]
How to include the perspectives of women living with HIV in research
By Florence Anam1, Cecilia Chung2, Teresia Otieno3, Martha Tholanah4, Alice Welbourn5 As the 23rd international AIDS conference nears, we reflect once more on what it takes to ensure that issues facing women living with HIV are adequately addressed, especially in the context of COVID-19 and increased rates of domestic violence globally. We know how violence […]
Should we all be wearing masks? A community midwife’s view.
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 […]
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 […]