The Contributors to Love and Midwifery

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Contributors

Biographical Details of Contributors (in alphabetical order of surnames)

Anna Byrom

Commencing her midwifery career over 24 years ago, Anna has worked in a variety of roles across midwifery services, education, and research, throughout the UK. With a passion for relational, humanised and rights-based midwifery care for all, she has worked across the UK as a caseload, team and birth centre midwife and leading infant feeding services in community and hospital settings. Anna completed her PhD, in 2019, with the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) at the University of Central Lancashire, England. Her thesis explored the influences of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative upon midwives and service-users. Passionate about supporting authentic, relational and social midwifery education she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, in 2019, from Advance HE, acknowledging her extensive contributions to midwifery education since 2010. Anna is the publisher of The Practising Midwife, Australia Edition and The Student Midwife journals and founding Director/CEO of the award winning All4Maternity.com supporting the learning, sharing and caring needs for all midwives and maternity workers. Anna has worked with global, national, regional and local teams to support internationally educated midwives with their transition to practice across NHS England and has been principal investigator on a number of midwifery education and clinical practice research projects including Sustaining Midwifery Continuity of Carer in Practice; Collaborative Learning in Practice; and Student Midwife Continuity of Carer placement learning.

Sheena Byrom

Kate Greenstock

Kate is a practising midwife, coach and facilitator. As a midwife she worked until recently within an NHS continuity of carer team; as a coach she supports midwives and others in healthcare to creatively re-imagine their work lives. Her favourite part of being a midwife is witnessing and supporting ‘newborn’ families in their profound transition and changing identities. She brings an absolute conviction that there is no substitute in the world for you, and your unique voice. Kate is a Certified Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF). Kate is a skilled facilitator of groups, shaping leadership development environments for pioneering healthcare professionals, and enjoys creating reflective spaces with midwives and student midwives. She facilitates Schwartz Rounds (exploring the emotional impact of healthcare work) for her home NHS trust. She published her book Flourish: A Practical and Emotional Guidebook to Thriving in Midwifery in 2023.

Anna Marsh

Since qualifying in 2017, Anna has worked in a busy central London hospital across all areas of maternity care. After completing a Wellbeing of Women Entry Level Scholarship for Midwives, she undertook a NIHR Predoctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship. Her research area of interest is improving how we communicate with women and pregnant people, with particular focus on the use of social media. Anna's current role is in Perinatal Quality Improvement.

Indie Luna

Indie is a classically trained medical anthropologist and clinically trained midwife with a passion for global maternal and neonatal health, and over a decade's international experience in a range of governmental and non-governmental organisations. She is currently the managing director of Atsede Clinic, Ethiopia, whilst also working towards completing a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Indie has published widely in leading midwifery journals, spoken at international maternal health conferences, participated in GRCF-funded qualitative research projects, and co-authored the book With Two Souls (published in 2022) with Gurage midwife Atsede Kidane, reflecting on the unique experiences of birth, death, love, and life in rural Ethiopia. Her second book, The Midwife's Apprentice, is due to be published in 2025.

Liz Newnham

Dr Elizabeth Newnham is associate professor of midwifery at Flinders University in Australia. For 25 years, her clinical practice, teaching and research has focused on seeking social justice solutions for humanising birth, currently through the development of four research streams: ethics, technology, environment and practice. Related work includes critical analysis of birth discourse and policy, exploring the role of bioethics in obstetric violence, and developing care ethics concepts for relational midwifery practice. She has published widely in these areas and been an invited speaker at conferences and events in Europe, the US, the UK and Australia.

Claire Nutt

Claire is a midwifery academic at the University of Birmingham, supporting their BSc midwifery apprenticeships and MSc midwifery programmes for nurses becoming midwives. She previously taught at the University of the West of England. Her midwifery career has included community midwifery, care in a birth centre, as a specialist midwife for perinatal mental health and professional midwifery advocate. As a massage therapist Claire’s passion for massage throughout the perinatal period has precluded and weaved throughout her midwifery career. Alongside private massage clinics and massage for midwives, Claire continues to teach maternity care professionals massage skills for pregnancy and birth with a focus on partner support.

Maeve O’Connell

Maeve is an assistant professor of midwifery at Fatima College of Health Sciences (FCHS) in Abu Dhabi, where she co-leads the development and teaching of a CAA accredited bachelor midwifery degree program in the UAE. She has been in this role since 2021, after working as a registered midwife and nurse for 20 years with experience working in Ireland, Bahrain and the UK. She holds a PhD in medicine and health from University College Cork and a master’s in advanced practice from King's College London. She is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at RCSI, Ireland. Maeve's research interests include intrapartum care, fear of childbirth (tokophobia), and perinatal mental health. She has published multiple articles, book chapters, and a Cochrane Review on these topics, and has presented her findings at international conferences. She is an associate editor for Women and Birth journal and a peer reviewer for many journals. She is passionate about promoting midwifery and maternal and newborn health and has a strong presence on social media as a nurse and midwife. She aims to advance the evidence-based practice, leadership, and education of midwifery in the UAE and beyond.

Naomi O’Donovan

Naomi is a registered midwife from Ireland. She has been sharing her love of midwifery with students since 2015 and began teaching full time in University College Cork in 2023. Her advocacy work led her to represent Ireland at the European Midwives Association and International Confederation of Midwives. Naomi has worked throughout Cork University Maternity Hospital and their domino team. Maintaining a clinic in West Cork, she is widely known for her passion for facilitating physiological birth.

Lesley Page

Building on a long and intense career in midwifery Professor Lesley Page CBE works to humanise childbirth, supporting pregnancy birth and the early weeks of life as a transformative event that is critical to our future. Lesley served as president of the Royal College of Midwives UK from April 2012 till June 2017. Lesley has considerable international experience and has worked in and lectured in many parts of the world. Lesley became the first professor of midwifery in the UK at Thames Valley University and Queen Charlotte’s and Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, London, UK in 2001. She is visiting professor of midwifery in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery and Palliative Care, King’s College London, and adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney. Lesley received the International Alumni Award from the University of Technology Sydney in 2013 and was conferred with an honorary DSc by the University of West London in November 2013. In 2014 she was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to midwifery. In 2021 Lesley received an honorary PhD in Midwifery from the University of Iceland.

Clare Wardhaugh

Clare’s original qualification in physical education led her to work as a teacher with adults who had severe to mild learning disabilities. After working in that field for 12 years she then joined a religious community, where she studied for a master’s degree in pastoral studies and then person-centred counselling. During this time, she was involved in personal development work in post-communist Lithuania and Croatia following the Balkans war. Also, during these years she developed a holistic approach to counselling and spiritual direction using movement. She was one of the founders of a holistic spirituality centre in Perth, Scotland. After 19 years in religious life Clare went on to work for 15 years in education teaching religious education with young people aged 12-18 years. Clare now takes time to write and reflect on her life in social work, religious life, counselling, spiritual direction and in education. In this reflection she recognises that her life has been a continuing journey of learning what it means to love and to love well. She has listened and learned from all those who have worked with her and accompanied her in her life, she attempts to live in the spirit of gratitude for all that has been and given to her.

Michelle Waterfall

Michelle has been a registered midwife in England for over 20 years. During her career she has worked in all areas of maternity in a clinical capacity and gained significant leadership and managerial experience. This lived leadership experience was enhanced when Michelle successfully completed an MBA in 2021. Michelle joined the Northwest Regional Maternity Team in March 2021 and was appointed as the Deputy Regional Chief Midwife in July 2021. She is determined to use this opportunity to support local maternity and neonatal care providers and systems to strive towards high quality, personalised maternity care.