Programme

Dr Sally Pezaro is an academic midwife, research associate and hearings panellist for the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Investigating Committee. Sally has clinical midwifery experience working in the United Kingdom, the Gambia and Ethiopia. Dr Pezaro has developed a passion for promoting the wellbeing of midwives and excellence in care, where her research remains challenge led. Dr Pezaro is also a proud steering group member of the Mary Seacole Awards programme. This programme is funded by Health Education England and delivered in association with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and Unite with support from NHS Employers. In 2019, Dr Pezaro was honoured with a first prize award from the Royal Society of Medicine in 'Leading and Inspiring Excellence in Maternity Care' and was also runner-up for the British Journal of Midwifery's 'Midwife of the Year' 2019. Follow Sally on Twitter (@SallyPezaro).

Kim Thomas is CEO of the Birth Trauma Association, a small national charity that supports women experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth – a condition affecting about 30,000 women a year in the UK. Her role is part-time, and she also works as a freelance journalist, specialising in health care and education. In 2013, she published Birth Trauma: A guide for you, your friends and family to coping with post-traumatic stress disorder following birth, which went into a second edition in 2020. She is currently working on a book called Postnatal PTSD: a Guide for Health Professionals. Kim also has a PhD in the sociology of education, and her thesis has been published by Open University Press. Twitter: @BirthTrauma

After completing a joint Honours BSc, Neil studied medicine at the University of Glasgow. He then moved to London to train in Obstetrics & Gynaecology and subsequently became a subspecialty trainee in Maternal Fetal Medicine at King’s College Hospital, London. During this time, he developed an interest in first trimester screening for preeclampsia and was a member of the team that produced the ASPRE study. In 2017, he moved to Paris where he worked as an obstetrician and fetal medicine specialist at Necker Hospital and lectured at Descartes University Paris. Neil returned home to Ireland in February 2020 where he took up his current post at the Coombe hospital. He has expertise in high risk pregnancies, fetal ultrasound, and fetal echocardiology. His special interests are 1st trimester ultrasound and screening for aneuploidies and preeclampsia, fetal abnormalities, twins, high risk obstetrics, diabetes in pregnancy, and undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

Fiona was born in New York but her family originates from Maine. She has lived in the UK for over 42 years with her Scottish husband, Reg Phipps, and trained as a nurse and midwife in the UK. Fiona graduated with her first degree (Associate in Arts) from Lincoln College, a small liberal arts college in Illinois, the day her first child was born. As Fiona walked across the stage to collect her diploma she was timing contractions. She became a lactation educator with La Leche League as a result of her experiences as a young breastfeeding mother, which led to her determination to achieve a career in midwifery. Fiona considers learning a life-long journey and is committed to education that is challenging, liberating and facilitative of personal growth and development. Her own education includes: M.Med.Sci. from the University of Sheffield, PGCE (HE) from Bradford College and a PhD from the University of Bradford where she worked for over 18 years as a midwifery educator. Following her initial retirement from the University of Bradford at age 60, she then went on to work in midwifery education and research for a further five years at the University of Salford. Her final role was as a Senior Research Fellow in Midwifery when she led a research team in conducting the Baby Skin integrity Comparison Survey (BaSICS) study. This research project was brought in on time and on budget prior to her final retirement in 2019. Besides Fiona's university work, she is the Review Editor of the International Journal of Health Governance (IJHG) and is entering 2021 with the resolution to complete her trilogy of novels, the first of which, A Season at the Weaver’s Table’ is available on the Kobo platform and to publish her children’s book series about the life and death of a rescue dog.

Louise Calland is a Registered Dietitian with 30 years’ experience. She has worked as a Specialist Paediatric Dietitian for 18 years. She has worked in all areas of community dietetics and has a particular interest in infant feeding and food allergy, with specific experience in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders and Cows’ Milk Allergy.

Justine has worked as a midwife for 10 years. During that time she has gained clinical experience in various hospitals, alongside a birth centre and a community setting in the East Midlands. Justine is passionate about learning and teaching and has been privileged to gain teaching experience at the University of Nottingham as a Practitioner Health Lecturer. More recently she led the midwifery modules for Maternity Support Worker apprentices for Access Training. In November last year Justine left clinical practice and now works as a full-time lecturer at the University of Cumbria. She is studying for an MSc in Midwifery Studies, Maternal and Newborn Health.

Traci Hudson is an Assistant Professor of Midwifery at the University of Nottingham. As a clinical midwife, she worked in a variety of different areas in the North West providing midwifery via different models of care including team midwifery, caseholding midwifery and as a senior midwife on a labour ward. She commenced her academic career at Liverpool John Moores University, moving on to Staffordshire University as the Lead Midwife for Education. She is now at the University of Nottingham and her specialist interests include global health, public health and mental health with a specific focus on the needs of underserved communities. Traci is a passionate advocate for student midwives and her academic career has always had a focus on learning and teaching to ensure that the midwives of the future are prepared for their career ahead.

Jacque Gerrard is the former Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Director for England now working freelance in a midwife consultancy capacity. She led on the RCM’s professional agenda and the Maternity Transformation Programme at RCM. Jacque has 40 years of nursing and midwifery experience as a clinician, manager and professional leader. Jacque is a patron of Mummy’s Star, a charity supporting pregnancy in cancer, and she is the Patron of the Sheffield charity Forging Families. She is an ambassador for the Mariposa Trust “Saying Goodbye” and a Trustee for the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust. She is also a member of the BJM editorial board. Jacque is a midwife and the former Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Director for England (2008-2018). She led on the RCM’s professional midwifery agenda. Jacque has found a new interest in physical activity. In May 2019, she qualified as a YMCA level 2 fitness instructor at Leeds Becket university. Jacque was appointed as a Physical Activity Champion in February 2020 by Public Health England. Jacque is an experienced midwife with over 38 years as a clinician, manager, head of midwifery and a national midwifery leader. She is on the board for the British Journal of Midwifery and is also involved in the following charities: • Mummy’s Star Patron (Cancer in pregnancy) • Beyond Bea baby loss charity Patron • An ambassador for Saying Goodbye baby loss charity. • Chair of Iolanthe Midwifery Trust which supports students and midwives to deliver local maternity projects. • Active Pregnancy Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member Awards and honours MBE Queens birthday honours 2019 for services to women and midwifery Doctor of the University of Bradford 2017 British Journal of Midwifery Leadership award 2016

Prof Caroline J Hollins Martin (PhD MPhil BSc RM RGN MBPsS Senior Fellow HEA) works in the area of women’s health, with a specific focus upon psychological issues surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Caroline’s background has encompassed a career in women’s reproductive health that spans 35 years. The first 11 years were spent working as a fulltime clinical midwife at Ayrshire Central Hospital (Irvine), which is now known as the Ayrshire Maternity Unit (Kilmarnock) and is based in the west of Scotland (UK). The other 24 years of Caroline’s working life has been spent teaching and researching women’s reproductive health within universities. To date, she has worked at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), University of York, University of Manchester, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Salford, and Edinburgh Napier University (5 years). Caroline is a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Midwife and Lecturer/Practice Educator. She is also a graduate and post-graduate in psychology and Member of the British Psychological Society (MBPsS). Caroline’s research mainly focuses upon psychology that relates to women’s reproductive health, with earlier work relating to hierarchies within organisations and their effects upon decision-making and providing choice and control to childbearing women. More recently, Caroline’s focus has shifted to developing useful tools for maternal health practitioners to use in clinical practice. For example, the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) (bss-r.co.uk) which has been validated to assess mothers’ perceptions of their birth experience. Other research interests lie in perinatal bereavement, Compassionate Mindfulness Therapy (CMT), PTSD and infection control. To date, Caroline has published 105 peer-reviewed papers, 4 books, 12 book chapters, 1 sector report, and 100+ conference presentations. Caroline’s publication record is available at Worktribe: https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/caroline-hollinsmartin

Dr Elaine Beaumont is a psychotherapist who specialises in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), compassion focused therapy (CFT) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR). Elaine works with a range of organisations and charities primarily working with people who have experienced either primary or secondary trauma. Elaine is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Salford. Her academic interests focus on therapeutic interventions for trauma, compassion in healthcare and the importance of practitioner self-care. Elaine is passionate about helping people in the healthcare professions (emergency service personnel, midwives, nurses and therapists) cultivate compassion for their own suffering. Elaine’s work with midwives suggests that bearing witness to the suffering of others can take its toll. Self-critical judgement, low levels of self-compassion, symptoms of stress, compassion fatigue, trauma and burnout can all have a negative impact on individuals who bear witness to trauma. Elaine’s research explores the impact compassionate mind training (CMT) has on people working in the helping professions and on people who have experienced trauma. Elaine provides workshops regarding mental health, compassion and wellbeing for The NHS and a variety of organisations and her research has been presented worldwide. (http://www.beaumontpsychotherapy.co.uk/) Elaine co-authored The Compassionate Mind Workbook: A step-by-step guide to developing your compassionate self in 2017 and The Kindness Workbook: Creative and compassionate ways to Boost your Wellbeing in 2020. Publications can be found via this link: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/view/authors/28018.html Twitter: @beaumontelaine

Gavin Cullen (MSc, BSc, RMN, Fellow of the HEA) works in the area of mental health practice and has done so for 30 years. Gavin worked as a Mental Health Nurse in clinical practice for 25 years. This included 20 years specialising in child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) practice, and 16 years employment as a Senior Charge Nurse. As a charge nurse, Gavin helped set up two new NHS CAMH services, including an inpatient unit. Having trained in cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy and a number of family-based approaches, his experiences leading nurses in a busy inpatient service led Gavin to become interested in the potential use of mindfulness and compassion-based approaches not just for patients and carers, but for staff well-being too. Gavin completed an MSc in Mindfulness Studies with Aberdeen University in 2010 which involved Mindfulness Association teacher training. He has also trained extensively in Compassionate Mind Training with Paul Gilbert and colleagues. He moved to working as a nurse lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University in 2018. He is currently three years into a five-year PhD study involving a feasibility trial of Compassionate Mind Training for first-year mental health student nurses.

Sara is the Head of Research & Development at Baby Lifeline. She is the lead author of the Mind the Gap reports which investigate maternity training provision, prioritisation, and assessment in response to key themes in mortality and morbidity in the UK. She works with the charity’s Multi-Professional Advisory panel to develop and assess training interventions centred around these themes and improving care in maternity. Sara represents Baby Lifeline nationally; she is a member of the Maternity Transformation Programme Stakeholder Council, a member of NHS Resolution’s Maternity Voices Advisory Group, and part of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) Patient and Public Involvement Network. She also recently gave oral evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s ‘Maternity safety in England inquiry’ hearing. Sara is also an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Hull, where she works with the Faculty of Health Sciences on the robust assessment of the impact of CPD training in maternity.

Steph is a bereaved parent, Registered Midwife and Founder of Beyond Bea Charity. She has been passionate about bereavement care since her training in Midwifery began and recognised a need to improve accessibility to bereavement training after her daughter, Bea, died in 2017. Since then she has created Beyond Bea Charity and works alongside a team who continue to provide training for free across the UK for any student or health professional.

Lucy is the lead TVN for Wye Valley NHS Trust which is a combined Acute and Community Trust in Herefordshire. Lucy is passionate about improving patient outcomes by raising standards and ensuring up to date evidenced based care is implemented. Her background is Intensive Care nursing and after nursing patients with large wounds and open abdomens she became really interested in wound management and healing which took her career into Tissue Viability. Lucy is also kept busy at home by her 3 children who are now 2, 3 and 5 years old and enjoys country life in rural Hereford.

As a registered nurse for over 20 years Jane has spent much of her career within the NHS. Latterly she worked as a tissue viability nurse within Leeds Community and currently as an Honorary Tissue Viability Nurse role at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. However, Jane's main role is the UK Clinical Education Manager for Essity. In this role Jane develops her passion for driving, evidence based, wound management education.

Yvonne has been a midwife for 30 years, practicing clinically in various contexts, as a senior research midwife and in the higher education sector as a lecturer. During her Doctoral journey she explored midwifery practice and how midwives provide care to women with raised BMI. Yvonne has specific interests pertaining to maternal health, particularly nutrition during pregnancy. She aims to continue developing this area of research and to develop a midwifery consultation model. Yvonne is a volunteer with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and as part of the Millennium Develop Goals, has facilitated educational programmes for our overseas colleagues in Kenya that has focused upon how to manage obstetric emergencies in a bid to get the maternal mortality rates down globally. She is now midwifery lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University and loved working with the future of the profession. Twitter: @GreigYvonne

Alison is an educational consultant and doctoral student, but is speaking today in her capacity as both the mum of a trisomy 18 child and a trustee of SOFT UK - the national support organisation for families affected by Trisomy 13 and 18. Her daughter Isabel, who has full Trisomy 18, is now 10 years old. Alison’s experiences have led to her becoming passionate about helping healthcare professionals to better understand how to support parents and families facing a Trisomy diagnosis.

Emyr is currently being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to complete an empirical PhD in Law exploring informed consent in the context of trisomy screening and testing. The focus of the PhD analyses the two key cases in the area of consent: Montgomery v Lanarkshire HB (2015) and Mordel v Royal Berkshire NHS (2019). His PhD evaluates the experiences of both parents and HCPs of informed consent for trisomy screening. He is currently based at Swansea University where he also teaches the law of Torts. Emyr has recently had his article “Understanding Mordel: Obtaining Informed Consent for Trisomy Screening” published by the BJM.

Jane Fisher is the Director of Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC). ARC is the only UK charity providing impartial information and support through antenatal testing and its consequences. ARC also runs a well-established training programme for health professionals working in the field. Jane joined ARC in 2001 as Support Co-ordinator and became Director in 2004. As well as managing the charity, she is also involved in directly supporting parents, training health professionals, research, policy and media work. She represents service users on the UK National Screening Committee, Fetal Maternal and Child Health Group of the UK NSC and is a member of the NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme Advisory group. She is also a Patient and Public Voice Representative on the NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Women’s Services.