Maternology Ltd

26/07/2025

Pregnancy can be an anxious time. Having the space to talk and ask questions can really help.

I offer online one to one consultations for reasurance.

These can be booked by following the link ⬇️

https://maternologyltd.setmore.com/services/be2b6c4a-a9f9-4c17-a94b-b1716177a5fc

08/07/2025

Policy update 📢

Today, the Government have confirmed families who go through baby loss before 24 weeks will be entitled to protected bereavement leave.

We know the heartbreak and devastation baby loss can cause, no matter when it happens. And up until now, families who've experienced baby loss before 24 weeks have not been entitled to parental bereavement leave. This means many have had to use annual or sick leave, or return to work before they're ready.

So, we're pleased the amendments to the Employment Right's Bill announced today will mean anyone experiencing pregnancy loss at any stage will have the legal right to take time off work to grieve.

This is a positive step forward to acknowledging baby loss as bereavement, and giving families the time and space they need to deal with their loss.

07/07/2025

If you book an antenatal appointment with me in pregnancy, whether that be in person or online you will receive a booklet or PDF booklet in order to that you can digest the information fully at your leisure. Antenatal education is so important. I will always give you the space to talk about your pregnancy, birth or infant feeding journey and answer any questions you might have.

03/06/2025

It’s discharge day again! Looking after both boys throughout pregnancy and seeing how well they have grown has been amazing!! 🤩 It’s not been the easiest pregnancy’s for mum and so I won’t be caring for them again, but we will keep in touch. Thank you so much for the lovely gifts and heartwarming words. It’s been an absolute pleasure 🥰

21/02/2025

Such beautiful words from another family I have recently discharged from my care. 🥰

16/02/2025

Glowing Mamma is coming to studley 🥰. This is a wonderful group of midwives, fully qualified to teach antenatal and postnatal classes in a safe manor that is tailored to suit all women.

Meet Nat your Glowing Mamma instructor for Studley!

Natalie has been a qualified midwife for 14 years and is currently a hospital based midwife working as deputy ward manager for antenatal and triage. Natalie lives in Redditch with her husband and 4 children Oscar 15, Jack 10, Poppy 6 and George 7 months.

“I am so excited to be part of Glowing Mamma, bringing antenatal and postnatal fitness classes to Studley!
I love being involved in community events and helping others to become the best version of themselves. Supporting and empowering others is my passion. I feel very privileged to share this journey with so many wonderful people. I can’t wait to meet you!”
Nat's postnatal classes will be starting on Wednesday 26th February at Studley Parish Centre. She does still have a small number of spaces, bookable via the link in our bio!

14/01/2025

Just a quick reminder that there is a whole body of research evidence supporting the practice of skin-to-skin contact straight after birth.

For more, see https://www.sarawickham.com and sign up for my emails, which mean you get up-to-date research and thinking delivered straight to your inbox.

08/01/2025

Discharge day for two of my lovely families. I have been spoiled 🥰.

It’s been an absolute privilege caring for them. Two babies born within a day of each other. One little boy, early and one past her due date. This happens all too often with my clients. That they like to arrive at the same time 😊. I’m sure the other private midwives often have this happen.

It’s always sad to say goodbye, but I’m sure we will keep in touch 🥰

05/12/2024

I do hope that more study’s are undertaken on this subject. I hear time and time again of women with very well controlled GDM how their birth experiences have been impacted adversely.

The UK Midwifery Study System has been used to help researchers describe outcomes in women admitted for labour care to midwifery units with gestational or pre-existing diabetes.

And their findings show that, “...selected women with well-controlled gestational diabetes may safely plan birth in midwifery units on the same site as obstetric and neonatal services.”

One important thing to bear in mind is that women with diabetes were advised to give birth in hospital when the births in this study took place. This is why there were fewer women in the study than the researchers would have liked.

Guidance has now changed, but the new evidence is still much needed.

It’s important to understand that researchers only studied the outcomes of the women and settings in the study. Other settings and/or situations haven’t been researched.

The researchers also note that, “The positive outcomes for the women with diabetes and their babies in our study are in all likelihood a result of careful selection by midwives and other clinicians in the context of discussion about planned place of birth and potential admission to an MU, and self-selection by women themselves who have a preference for midwifery-led care.”

Findings included that:

“Women with diabetes were no more likely than comparison women to experience the composite primary outcome.”

“We found no statistically significant differences between the two groups for the secondary maternal and neonatal outcomes investigated: augmentation, postpartum haemorrhage >1.5 L, shoulder dystocia, maternal blood transfusion and maternal admission for higher level care, Apgar

19/11/2024

With Christmas around the corner. 🎅 Don’t forget we do E-Gift cards. It’s so simple and something she will really appreciate 🥰

Order Maternology Ltd eGift Cards online and give the perfect gift. Send gift cards instantly to anyone. Powered by Square Gift Cards

23/10/2024

I still can’t get my head around induction of labour for suspected LGA.🤔

I hear many women saying that they had been scared into having an induction of labour earlier than their baby was ready to come and that it did not end well.

Induction of labour can be a good option when there is a medical indication and has been fully discussed in order that women have informed choices, but seeing the evidence of how little difference in baby’s weight inducing labour that extra week early has it really does not seem to make any sense inducing when baby is not yet ready to arrive 🤷‍♀️

One paragraph from my "Inducing Labour: making informed decisions" always gets comments and receives positive attention.

It’s the one in which I point out that that the Cochrane review on induction for suspected large babies showed that there was very little difference in the weight of babies born after induction or waiting.

The average difference was 178g.

Which was, I wrote, after spending a fun few minutes on a maths website, the weight of a hamster.

(OK, or a medium sized pear, which I added at the suggestion of one of my lovely editors. But I still left the hamster in 😆).

Several years later, I’m still hearing from women, midwives and birth workers about how the suspected big babies stuff affects them.

In fact, this is such a big (no pun intended) issue that I devoted a whole chapter of “In Your Own Time” to big babies.

It’s called, “Does my baby look big in this?”

So I'm posting this as a reminder of the importance of getting lots of good information before making any birth-related decision.

No matter whether that's about induction of labour, whether or not to be in a research trial or who's going to look after the hamster on the big day.

If you'd like to know more, you can find out about induction of labour and both of my books on this topic at www.sarawickham.com/iol

And huge thanks to who lets me use this pic of Little Bear whose legacy lives on, helping people to understand induction statistics even though he is now scampering around the hamster wheel in the sky 💜