Hi Madie

I have just read with massive interest the abstact of your article in MIDIRS (risk paper). Congratulations! 

Is there any chance you could send me a copy please? I am doing a talk in Edinburgh in November and it would be so useful...

Hope all OK with your work and study Mandie,

Best wishes,

Sheena x



On 11 Apr 2012, at 13:15, "Scamell, Amanda" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Not sure these papers would fit into the EBP agenda (and as a consequence may well be judged to be outside of the NMC supervisory sphere for practice regulation) but I think it makes an interesting contribution to this thread.
> 
> Odent M. (1996) Knitting needles, cameras, and electronic fetal monitors  MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 6 (1996), pp. 304–306
> Odent M (2004). Knitting midwives for drugless childbirth? MidwiferyToday 71: 21-2.
> 
> Personally I'm fond of the way this approach to being a midwife has been legitimised in Pembroke & Pembroke's paper The spirituality of presence in midwifery care Midwifery Volume 24, Issue 3, September 2008, Pages 321–327
> 
> 
> BW
> Mandie Scamell 
> ________________________________________
> From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stewart, Mary [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 11 April 2012 09:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: knitting during labour
> 
> I think this is one of the saddest e-mails I have ever read, though that sadness is because of the response from the Head of Midwifery (HoM).  I wonder how the HoM defines ‘professional care’ and what she thinks it can and cannot encompass?  There is something deeply wrong in our society where professional care, presumably, includes the habit of offering a woman an epidural as soon as she is admitted to a labour ward, but does not include care given by a midwife who sits quietly and attentively in a corner of the room, observing, listening, and engaging on a profoundly emotional and spiritual level.
> 
> I have sat and knitted while attending women at a home birth.  It is not something I would do at every birth, and I can’t imagine ever doing it unless I had met the woman several times beforehand.  The practice/art (not sure that either of those words is suitable actually) of knitting is based, I think, on a relationship of trust that has developed over time.  It is a very clear, but calm way of demonstrating that ‘all is well’.
> 
> I remember sitting knitting at a friend’s homebirth some years ago.  It is perhaps no coincidence that I was knitting the left hand side of a cardigan (just over the heart region) while my friend laboured, supported by her partner.  I think of my friend, and her daughter, every time I wear the cardigan – it is one of my most precious possessions.
> 
> With warm good wishes
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mary Stewart
> Senior lecturer in midwifery
> Room 3.32, James Clerk Maxwell Building
> King's College London, Waterloo campus
> 57 Waterloo Road
> London SE1 8WA
> 
> Tel: 0207 848 3699
> Mobile: 07872 423085
> 
> From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Denis Walsh
> Sent: 11 April 2012 09:20
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: knitting during labour
> 
> I would like to share the following story with the network and invite comments. I was told the story in an email this week.
> 
> It is from a midwife who attends a lot of home birth.
> 
> She, together with some colleagues often knit while attending a home birth labour and the Head of Midwifery heard about it. The midwives then received a phone call asking them to attend a meeting with the Head of Midwifery and Human Resources.
> 
> At the meeting, the Head of Midwifery said that she had never heard of the practice of knitting during labour and, while she was prepared to look at the information from books and article about the purpose behind it, in her opinion, if they were knitting, they could not be providing professional care. The midwives subsequently received a letter saying that, after consulting with fellow Heads of Midwifery, Local Supervising Authority officers and Professional and Regulatory Bodies, they were to stop the practice of knitting at births. The reason for this was that, in the event of an adverse outcome, the Regulatory body would not support them if it were to come to light that they had been knitting during the labour.
> Best wishes,
> Denis
> Dr Denis Walsh
> Associate Professor in Midwifery
> Academic Division of Midwifery
> University of Nottingham
> East Block
> Queens Medical Centre
> Derby Rd
> Nottingham NG7 2UH
> United Kingdom
> Tel: +44(0)115 8230987
> Mobile: 07905735777
> Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 
> 
> 
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
> 
> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.