Fetal monitoring doesn't benefit baby or mum - Neither healthy women in labour nor their babies derive any benefit from electronic fetal monitor (EFM) on admission to hospital. ...

Fetal monitoring: high tech failure - Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) the test supposed to detect cerebral palsy in the unborn child has been judged one of the great failures of high tec...

Double exam for newborns wastes medical resources - The standard practice in maternity units of examining a newborn baby twice is a waste of resources and should be stopped. One examination is sufficien...

Birth: not in hospital - Several decades of prevailing medical wisdom on the best place for you to have your baby have been cast aside with a recent House of Commons year long...

Induced birth: poor timing - Hospitals should stop routinely inducing births after a pregnancy has reached 42 weeks, according to Linda Cardozo, consultant obstetrician and gynaec...

Caesarean births skyrocket again in the west - New figures show that the number of caesarean sections performed in the UK has risen dramatically from 16 per cent in 1996 to a national average of 19...

Giving birth over 30 - The number of women giving birth over the age of 35 is steadily increasing. According to one estimate, by the year 2000, 40 per cent of births in the...

Ultrasound does not always benefit mother, says bmj - Antenatal ultrasound is widely used to detect major fetal abnormalities such as anencephaly. However, a recent editorial (BMJ,1997; 314: 918) question...