Notes from The Motherhood Practice.

What the biggest maternity review in a decade found, and why a commissioner won't be enough

The National Maternity Investigation's findings are damning and accurate. Here's why its recommendations won't change your care in time, and what will.

Hannah: "it's the first time I felt more than a set of notes"

Hannah was pregnant with her first child. She was doing everything she was supposed to do, attending her appointments at the hospital and turning up on time. And yet, somewhere in the middle of it all, something felt quietly wrong. The appointments were short. The midwife was different each time. And more than once, Hannah left a consultation having been handed a leaflet about a decision she was expected to make, with no one in the room to actually talk her through it. Her notes were in the sys

Camille: finding confidence before her second birth

Camille came to us in her third trimester, anxious about her second birth. Here's how bespoke birth preparation changed everything.

K & J: a rare diagnosis, a remarkable collaboration, and a baby who made it home

When a private 3rd-trimester scan revealed a rare cardiac condition, K. and J. needed more than medicine. They needed a midwife who who knew them.

Lynne: from 5 weeks pregnant to 6 weeks postpartum, why she chose both The Motherhood Practice and the NHS

When we started The Motherhood Practice, we hoped we could make a real difference to women during one of the most significant periods of their lives. We didn't dare imagine feedback like this.

Why a private midwife is not a doula, and why that difference matters

You have probably heard of doulas by now. Perhaps a friend used one and spoke warmly of the experience. Perhaps you have seen them in the same conversations as hypnobirthing instructors and birth photographers, in that general category of taking your birth seriously. They are increasingly visible in London's maternity world, and for good reason. The emotional support they provide is real. For many women, it matters. This article is not an argument against doulas. It is an argument for understan

From pregnancy to family life: announcing our partnership with Fox & Cubs

We are proud to partner with Fox & Cubs, award-winning nanny and private staff agency, to help our families plan for every chapter of parenthood: from pregnancy and birth through to the family life that comes after.

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The 6-Week check won't tell you if you're really recovering. This will.

The 6-week GP check is a starting point, not a recovery plan. Discover why combining expert midwifery care with a Women's Health Physio assessment gives you the full picture.

Stronger Together: Where Movement Meets Community In Pregnancy

Frame's Mumhood community just got bigger. The Motherhood Practice is partnering with Frame to bring prenatal community groups to pregnant women in London. Here's why it matters.

Therapy alone isn’t going to fix what’s missing in maternal health care

This fact might surprise you: Mental illness is the number one complication of pregnancy and the postnatal period. Not high blood pressure. Not postpartum haemorrhage. Nothing “physical” comes close - in terms of numbers - to the amount of reports clinicians receive regarding mental health.

Gestational Diabetes: What the NHS doesn't have time to give you

Just diagnosed with gestational diabetes? Here's what good midwifery care looks like when your pregnancy becomes high-risk, and what you shouldn't have to navigate alone. You weren't expecting the call. Or perhaps it was a letter, or a message through the NHS app, brief and clinical, telling you that your glucose tolerance test had come back outside the normal range. Gestational diabetes. You've written the words down, Googled them, read the NHS page, the NICE guidelines, the Mumsnet threads. Y

After everything it took to get here: Why pregnancy after IVF can feel like falling off a cliff

IVF pregnancy comes with anxiety the NHS isn't set up to hold. Here's why having the same midwife throughout is life changing. You spent years getting here. Perhaps two rounds of IVF, perhaps more. Miscarriages. The blood tests at 6am. The injections. The two-week waits that felt like holding your breath until your lungs gave out. And then, finally, a viable pregnancy. A positive scan. A due date. You thought the fear would ease. It hasn't. What nobody tells you about pregnancy after IVF is t

The midwife who knows you

What continuity of midwife care actually means, and what the evidence says it changes.

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The midwife who stays when your pregnancy gets complicated

Specialist-led care manages your condition. A named midwife manages you. Here is why both matter. You did not expect the call. Or perhaps you did, because you had been quietly bracing for it since the scan, since the blood test, since the moment a consultant used a phrase that sent you home to Google at 11pm. However it arrived, whether gestational diabetes at 38 weeks, a breech presentation at 34, a cervical length measurement that placed you on a different pathway, or a pregnancy after IVF t