Category / Nursing & Midwifery

Maternity research in Afghanistan

BU research, PG research, Publishing, student research

Just after I blogged about the first publication for 2015, I was informed by BU PhD student Rachel Arnold that our article: “Understanding Afghan health care providers: A qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital” is included in the first issue of 2015 of the journal BJOG.

 

BU has provided Open Access funding to make this paper freely available, which is especially important for readers in low-income countries such as Afghanistan or Nepal.  The paper can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-0528.13179/pdf

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health , Bournemouth University

Reference

Arnold R, van Teijlingen E, Ryan K, Holloway I. Understanding Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital. BJOG 2015; 122: 260-267.

 

First BU publication of 2015

Featured academics, Publishing, Uncategorized

Those working in the reproductive health field or in local media will be familiar with the phenomenon of the reporting of the first baby born in the New Year.   For example, you may have read a short item of the first baby of 2015 born just after midnight with a lovely picture of the baby with proud parents and/or midwife.

 

This BU Research Blog is the equivalent of the first publication for 2015.  I contributed a chapter called ‘Sociology of Midwifery’ to the edited book Sociology for Midwives published by Polity Press (Jan. 2015) and edited by Ruth Deery, Elaine Denny & Gayle Letherby.

The Polity Press website lists three reviews of the book by eminent academics in the field of midwifery:

“What is the point of sociology for midwives and midwifery? A sociological perspective can give us a different understanding of reproduction and maternity care. It can help us challenge our ‘common sense’ assumptions about how people and the world tick. This new book provides midwives and midwifery students with a readable comprehensive and up to date review of the field of sociology applied to reproduction and maternity care. The editors bring together a very impressive amount of material and present it in an accessible and clear way. Their facility for handling complex theoretical and detailed empirical material is admirable.”

Jane Sandall, King’s College London

 

“The editors and authors of this fine volume have produced a wonderful introduction to the value of a sociological imagination in the practice of midwifery.”

Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York

“The authors set out to ‘stimulate the sociological imagination’ of their readers. The combination of theoretical analysis and application of sociological theory to specific practice situations provides extensive opportunities for this to take place. Readers who are new to the sociology of maternity care will find ample material to excite and engage them. Those who already have dipped into this vast and fascinating field will find new applications, angles and perspectives that can cast a fresh light on why we do what we do in maternity care, and that provide possible routes for positive change in the future.”

Soo Downe, University of Central Lancashire

For more details of Sociology for Midwives, see:  http://www.politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=0745662803

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

Bournemouth University

Congratulations to HSC student Mr. Jib Acharya

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

HSC PhD student Jib Acharya presented the preliminary results of his thesis research in a poster presentation entitled “A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Nepal”

The poster was accepted at the 3rd World Congress of Public Health Nutrition Conference in Gran Canaria,  Spain, 2014.

Mr. Acharya’s poster was displayed as a traditional paper poster but also a digital poster on television screens around the conference.  The thesis work is supervised in the School of Health & Social Care by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.  The attendance of this conference was made possible due to the support of a Santander award.

Congratulations

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Breastfeeding research presented in Cornwall

BU research, Featured academics, Knowledge Transfer, PG research, Research news, Uncategorized

Congratulations to Alison Taylor, senior lecturer in midwifery who presented preliminary findings of her PhD as keynote speaker last month at the Cornwall  Real Baby Milk conference.  Alison’s presentation ‘Women’s Breastfeeding Experiences – shared using video diaries’ was very well received.  Alison’s fieldwork has been supported by the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust , she received the first Tricia Anderson award in 2008. Founded in 1983, the Trust supports midwives and student midwives to undertake further education and to carry out projects designed to improve the care of mothers and babies.

More details on the conference can be found at:

http://realbabymilk.org/couldnt-make-real-baby-milk-cornwall-conference-last-month/

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

Thinking Futures: Talking about academic quilting

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On 5th November Jenny Hall, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, presented at an event organised for the ‘Thinking Futures’ festival for the University of Bristol. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/fssl/festival/
The festival was an eleven day series of lectures to share and celebrate research from the Faculty of Social science and Law and had sponsorship from the ESRC Festival of social science. The sponsorship meant that it was open to the public and therefore anyone could turn up.
The day was called ‘Patchwork, quilting and keeping it all going’ and arranged by inspirational Management academic and quilt researcher Ann Rippin http://annjrippin.wordpress.com/ Ann placed in social and historical context the study of quilting and the history of quilters, identifying the lack of research around this significant social activity. Harriett Shortt from the business school at UWE Bristol shared how she had developed a quilt as a response to her PhD studies.
http://harrietshortt.wordpress.com/ Jenny also talked about the process of reflexivity in her EdD study around developing her quilt as well as the creation of ‘text quilts’. The audience included researchers as well as members of the public active in stitching. Overall it was a day that stimulated a lot of discussion around the use of creative craft in life as well as research and highlighted the need for more work around quilters to be carried out.

Examination of the Newborn (EXON) Pilot Project for under-graduate student midwives: an update.

Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, student research, Training

In November last year I published a blog on the first pilot project I undertook with five under-graduate pre-registration midwifery students which was designed to enable them to qualify with the skills and competencies around examination of the newborn (EXON). The students were required to access and study the module with post-graduate midwives. Four of the students successfully completed the course in September 2014 with one student leaving early on in the project due to unforeseen family circumstances. The journey to completion was not smooth. The first hurdle was a clash of assessments. The EXON assessment (a presentation) fell in the same week as Complex Care (CC), a third year unit assessment where students are required to undergo a VIVA and manage two obstetric emergencies. It is a stressful experience and therefore three of the students requested an extension to their EXON presentation with only one choosing to present with her post-registration colleagues. As the EXON assessment took place on the Monday of that particular week and Complex Care assessments were running over three days, the student managed to negotiate to undertake her CC assessment on the Friday. The three students were re-scheduled to present later in the year with a number of other midwives who were on extensions or resits.  One of the advantages of choosing to present in January 2014 was that the student was able to choose a topic that she could use both for her learning around EXON and for her extended essay which was due to be completed somewhat later in the academic year. The student was successful in both endeavours as were all the others but at a later date.

Another hurdle students found themselves confronted with, was a lack of opportunity to undertake newborn examinations including a shortage of midwifery mentors who could support the training requirements of the project. Two of the students could not get any of the examinations done in their own trusts. Fortunately for them, the maternity unit and midwifery staff at Poole NHS Trust Hospital were extremely obliging and supported the students to work there which enabled them to complete the practical newborn checks. All four of the students have successfully qualified as midwives and have obtained midwifery posts in the local area. They remain committed EXON and have volunteered to be EXON ‘champions’ within their respective trusts. I am grateful to Jeanette Elliot, Luzie Schroter, Jenna Penhale and Bex Coleman-Moss for their hard work and dedication during the pilot and for their feedback and advice for the next intake.

Demand for places for the second pilot project remained high when the call was put out a short while ago. Unfortunately due to some of the barriers described above it was only feasible to recruit five students again and all of them based in the west. The students have commenced their studies and are enjoying the learning so far. The pilot projects are helping to inform what impact these barriers will have on the training needs for midwifery students within our local maternity units as this year we are introducing EXON theory to all midwifery students on our newly validated curriculum with the caveat that students will obtain the necessary theoretical knowledge but not all with qualify with the required skills. However by ‘fast-tracking’ students onto one of our twice yearly CPD EXON modules which has around 20+ midwives enrolled, by the time the students reach their third year there should be many more midwives qualified in EXON and in place to support our under-graduate students to gain the competencies around newborn examination.  If you require any further information please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler on lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk    

 

Congratulations to PhD student Rachel Arnold

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

HSC postgraduate student Rachel Arnold just had the first paper from her research in Afghanistan accepted by the scientific journal BJOG.  Her paper analyses the culture of a Kabul maternity hospital to understand its impact on the care of perinatal women and their babies.    A heavy workload, too many complicated cases and poor staff organisation lead to a low quality of maternity care. Cultural values, social and family pressures influenced the motivation and priorities of healthcare providers.

The centrality of the family and family obligations in Afghan society has emerged as a major theme. Another theme is the struggle for survival – as health care providers work to support their families, to maintain the power that they have, and to survive within a hospital system where fear rather than compassion appears to drive and motivate.  Rachel presented some of the key issues at the 2013 GLOW conference in Birmingham.   Rachel is supervised by Professors Immy Holloway, Kath Ryan (LaTrobe University, Australia) and Edwin van Teijlingen.

Rachel’s paper Understanding ‘Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital’ can be found here.  The paper is Gold Open Access.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

Research from staff in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) was well represented at this week’s Royal College of Midwives Conference (RCM). The RCM Conference 2014 held in the International Centre Telford explore the theme Better Births: United in Excellence. At this midwifery conference HSC Dr. Sue Way chaired a session on ‘Perineal Care and the Management of the Second Stage’

Dana Colbourne, Postgradute student at Bournemouth University and midwife at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust presented a poster with the title ‘PhD student Leading the way – A case study of a student midwife led postnatal clinic’.

Dr Stella Rawson, senior lecturer in midwifery presented her poster ‘Listening to Women: Exploring women’s experiences of being part of a student midwife’s caseload’.

Jan Stoziek, senior lecturer in midwifery and also Prof Doc student at the University of Portsmouth presented her poster ‘Mother’s Experience of Breastfeeding after Breast Cancer’.

Lesley Milne also presented a poster on the work around ‘Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study’  with Prof. Padam Simkhada, HSC Visiting Faculty Ms. Jillian Ireland, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen,