Insights – Midwife-led antenatal care ‘yeilds better outcomes’

Maternity care that involves a midwife as the main care provider leads to better outcomes for most women, compared with shared care or medical-led approaches, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The researchers, from Shefeld Hallam University, The University of Warwick and National University of Ireland Galway, reviewed data from 13 trials involving a total of 16,242 women and looked at outcomes for both mothers and babies following different models of care. When midwives were the main providers of care throughout, women were less likely to give birth before 37 weeks or lose their babies before