Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps. His book contains, under case 14, the earliest published record of the use of the hitherto secret Chamberlen forceps, in 1726, together with illustrations of two variant types.

Giffard was the first English obstetrician to publish substantial contributions to clinical midwifery. He described the Ritgen maneuver almost a century before Ritgen, as well as a case of ectopic gestation, which he illustrated on plate 2.