"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves that we are underlings." The words of Shakespeare are not dimmed for us. In some respects we are nearer to the thought of his day than we like to admit, for the cults of astrology, numerology and their ilk still find ready adherents. The superstitions of the ball diamond seem to amuse us but it is disappointing to find counterpart...

OBJECTIVE To compare intrapartum and neonatal mortality in low-risk term women starting labour in midwife-led versus obstetrician-led care. STUDY DESIGN We performed a propensity score matched study using data from our national perinatal register, completed with data from medical files. We studied women without major risk factors with singleton pregnancies who gave birth at term between 2005 ...

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study was to use visits for contraceptive counselling as opportunities for examining women's actual life style habits with the main focus being placed on alcohol consumption but also to evaluate the women's opinions about discussing their alcohol and tobacco habits and their weight status. METHODS A total of 535/802 (67%) women completed a study-specific anonymous q...

OBJECTIVES The claimed advantages of home deliveries, including fewer medical interventions, are potentially counter balanced by the small additional risk on perinatal adverse outcome compared to hospital deliveries in low risk women. Homelike birth centres have been proposed a new setting for low risk women combining the advantages of home and hospital, resulting in lower intervention rates wi...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the routine examination of the newborn by a midwife compared with a junior paediatrician (SHO) affects maternal satisfaction with this examination. METHODS Randomised controlled trial: 826 mother and baby pairs in a district general hospital in south east England were randomised to a paediatric SHO or a midwife for the routine newborn examination. Maternal satis...