Blog
Notes from The Motherhood Practice.
Honest writing on pregnancy, birth and the early weeks with a newborn, from a team of London midwives.
Alexia
Alexia and her partner were first time parents with no family nearby. Here is how the early weeks with their midwife Agata went. She was expecting her first baby, her family was far from London, and she wanted two things: someone to show her and her partner how to look after a newborn, and someone to call when they weren't sure. She was also set on breastfeeding and a little nervous about it. Most first time mothers are. Alexia was matched with Agata, one of our midwives, who visited the fami
Sarah Seror2 min read
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Testimonial
Margo
Margo moved to London while pregnant and had no idea what postpartum support would look like. Here is how six weeks with her midwife Agata went.
Sarah Seror2 min read
New partnership with Fertifa
Midwife care through your employer: our partnership with Fertifa If your employer offers Fertifa, you may already know it as the benefit that helped with fertility treatment, egg freezing or the long stretch of waiting that comes before a pregnancy. From this month, that support does not stop at the positive test. We are proud to announce that The Motherhood Practice is now a partner of Fertifa, Europe's most comprehensive reproductive health and neurodiversity benefits provider. Fertifa suppo
Sarah Seror2 min read
News
The Motherhood Practice on BBC Woman's Hour!
Our founder Sarah Seror joined BBC Woman's Hour to compare French and UK maternity care and explain why The Motherhood Practice exists.
Sarah Seror2 min read
The NHS called it a clinical safety mechanism. So why isn't continuity of care happening?
In a health system where language tends toward the careful and the qualified, the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation used unusually plain words. Having the same midwife throughout pregnancy, at birth and in postpartum (aka continuity of carer) is "not a luxury, it is a clinical safety mechanism." That sentence matters. Not because it is new information to those of us working in maternity care, but because it is now the conclusion of the most comprehensive review of NHS maternity serv
Sarah Seror4 min read
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.
Sarah Seror6 min read
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
Sarah Seror3 min read
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.
Sarah Seror3 min read
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.
Sarah Seror4 min read
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.
Sarah Seror7 min read
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
Sarah Seror5 min read
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.
Sarah Seror2 min read
News
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.
Sarah Seror7 min read
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.
Sarah Seror2 min read
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.
Sarah Seror5 min read
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
Sarah Seror4 min read
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
Sarah Seror5 min read
The midwife who knows you
What continuity of midwife care actually means, and what the evidence says it changes.
Sarah Seror6 min read
News
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
Sarah Seror7 min read
In the press
Where you’ll find us in the news.
MadeForMums
Katherine Ryan 'pooed in front of the two most handsome men in England' — and has no regrets
Featuring expert insight from Clarissa, our founder and head of midwifery.
HuffPost UK
The warning signs pregnant women should never ignore in a heatwave
Featuring expert insight from Clarissa, our founder and head of midwifery.
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