BU Research Blog

BU Programme Lead for BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy, Dr Malika Felon was awarded the prize for Best Oral Presentation at the WiSEAN conference (Women in Sport and Exercise Science Academic Network) at University of Portsmouth in June 2024. This comes after her award of the Early Career Researcher Award at the same conference last year in Liverpool.

Malika presented on behalf of the Reproductive Health and Outdoor Swimming Group, which includes experts from across cold water physiology, exercise physiology, reproductive science, maternal health, obstetrics, neonatology, water epidemiology and representatives from the Open Water Swimming Society and an open-water swimming social enterprise (University of Plymouth, University of Portsmouth, UCL, NHS Trusts, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Bluetits Chill Swimmers).

The presentation was on the group’s work ‘Cold Water Swimming and Pregnancy: A Scoping Review and Consensus Recommendations’. The work recognises the lack of evidence-based information to answer the many questions women have about cold water swimming during pregnancy. The presentation gained a lot of interest, and the group encourage future research to provide the evidence on which accurate advice can be based, allowing women to make evidence based decisions on whether to continue cold water swimming during pregnancy.

Bournemouth University had a group of eight members of staff travel up the coast to attend the WiSEAN conference, including supporting Megan Chesters, a final year undergraduate student from BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy, present her final year Research Project as a poster presentation.

Dr Malika Felton writes “The WiSEAN conference is a fantastic supportive environment, and I am honoured to be recognised for my work at two conferences in a row.”

“As part of the award I received a signed copy of The Female Body Bible (The Well HQ), which I am very much looking forward to read and has been on my to read list since before it came out. The foreword at the start of the book is ‘For those who want to forge a better future for girls and women everywhere – in sport, in health, in life’. I’m looking forward to being a part of this future, working alongside other amazing researchers in the area of women’s health.”