Tagged / midwifery

BU Midwives attend the International Labour and Birth Research Conference

Based in Cumbria, the International Labour and Birth Research Conference, previously known as the Normal Birth Conference, has been a highlight in the midwifery calendar for over two decades. Hosted by Research in Childbirth and Health (REACH) Group at the University of Central Lancashire, speakers and delegates travel from around the world to attend this prestigious event. The theme for this year’s interdisciplinary conference was ‘evidence knowledge and creativity; optimising safety and personalisation in maternity care’.

Several midwives from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) at Bournemouth University presented their work. Dr Laura Iannuzzi presented under the title ‘Co-designing respectful maternity care in a slum area: methodological considerations from an international multidisciplinary research in Nairobi’.

Dr Juliet Wood & Dr Jane Fry shared their work, ‘Understanding concepts of normal/physiological labour and birth – evidence from a thematic analysis of the views of student midwives across the globe’. Prof Vanora Hundley and Anna Marsh, clinical academic midwife, hosted a workshop called ‘Dissemination and impact: policy makers and the media’. The team also participated as members of the International Early Labour Research Group in a workshop and symposium.

The conference is a great opportunity for emerging researchers. Two of CMMPH postgraduate researchers had the opportunity to share their work with midwives from across the globe. Anna Marsh presented her recently completed MRes work titled ‘How do midwives portray birth on Instagram? A content analysis of posts from the USA, UK, New Zealand and Australia’.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented ‘The RETHINK Study: A study to determine if pregnant women who pain catastrophise are more likely to attend hospital during the latent phase of labour’. We are very proud to say that Vanessa’s poster won the conference competition for ‘Best Scientific Poster’!

International Early Labour Research Group

This has been a busy few months for the International Early Labour Research Group (IELRG), which comprises members from across the globe. We had the opportunity to get together at the International Labour and Birth Research Conference in Grange over Sands this month, where early labour was a strong theme.

The IELRG held a workshop looking at how latent phase labour is defined. This was followed by a symposium on early labour with presentations from the USA and Europe.

The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health at Bournemouth University was well represented. In addition to participating in the workshops, the team had a couple of posters.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented her doctoral work on pain catastrophisation. Congratulations to Vanessa for winning both the daily and overall prize for Best Scientific Poster!

Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, presented a study looking at how perceptions of pain established prior to pregnancy can influence decisions about labour and birth.

The International Early Labour Research Group with be launching a special issue of Women and Birth later this year.

Related BU papers:

Bartholomew V, Clark C, Hundley V, Parris B (2023) Changing the Way We Think About Pain. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): 30-38

Clark C, Bartholomew V, Mylod D, Hundley V  (2023) The importance of pain histories for latent phase labour. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): in press

Opportunity: NIHR Committee member development scheme

The NIHR is seeking to appoint members to their Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme committees as Committee Member Development Scheme (CMDS) Participants. They are one year development opportunities are for nurses and midwives currently at Band 6 or above, or in an equivalent academic role who have a good understanding and experience of front-line health and care practice. Read more information here.

Charlotte Clayton speaks at Maternity & Midwifery Hour

Charlotte Clayton, a PhD student supervised by Professor Ann Hemingway, Dr Mel Hughes and Dr Stella Rawnson, recently spoke about her doctoral research with Professor Trixie McAree as part of a Maternity and Midwifery Hour.  Charlotte’s research is exploring the Pregnancy and Postnatal Experiences, and birth outcomes of women and babies Living on a Low-income, and the role of continuity models of midwifery care in the reduction of health inequalities.  A recording of the Charlotte’s contribution to the meeting can be viewed HERE.  Congratulations Charlotte.

Erasmus+ teaching in Nepal

international, Knowledge Exchange

BU professors Vanora Hundley and Carol Clark are currently in Nepal as part of an exchange between Bournemouth University (BU) and Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

They have enjoyed discussing research with the Masters in Public Health students at MMIHS, whose research proposals include topics as diverse as stress and burnout, musculoskeletal injuries in hand-loom workers, and occupational health of high altitude porters.

Yesterday they were teaching the students as part of their Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit. Vanora outlined the history of Safe Motherhood and the group had a detailed discussion about the causes of maternity mortality and strategies to improve care for mothers and babies. Carol gave a lecture on urinary incontinence (including teaching the class how to do pelvic floor exercises) and explored how we handle taboo subjects such as this.

Carol and Vanora had an opportunity to meet with students from MMIHS who had recently returned from their exchange with Bournemouth University. The students spoke about how their time in Dorset had enabled them to learn about health in the UK and to share their expertise in delivering public health in a low income country.

The Erasmus+ exchange promotes cross-border education and knowledge exchange. It facilitates networking, enables capacity building and provides opportunities for future collaboration.

BU professors lead research workshop at Kathmandu University, Nepal

international, Training

Prof Carol Clark and Prof Vanora Hundley travelled to Dhulikhel in the Kavrepalanchok District of Nepal to deliver a workshop on research methodology.

The attendees included nurses, lecturers and senior academics from Kathmandu University. Together the group discussed the research gaps in women’s health in Nepal and the types of studies needed to help build evidence for practice.

Like many countries, research into women’s health is a neglected area but one that is beginning to gather strength. The discussion identified research gaps in specific areas of health, such as postnatal care and nutrition, and also cross-cutting themes, such as empowerment and education. Next steps for research collaboration were also discussed.

The workshop was supported by Erasmus+ and Green Tara Nepal (GTN).  Erasmus+ is the European Commission’s flagship for financial support of mobility for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. Bournemouth University has been working with GTN for the last two decades and has collaborations with BU academics including Prof Edwin van Teijlingen, D. Pramod Regmi, Prof Carol Clark, Dr Nirmal Aryal, Dr Shanti Shanker, and Prof Vanora Hundley.

 

50th PhD viva as external

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Late last week I had the pleasure of conducting my 50th Ph.D. viva as an external examiner.  The first Ph.D. viva as external examiner was in 2004 at the University of Durham.  Over the years most have been at universities in the UK, but I have also had the pleasure of conducting viva in Ireland, the Netherlands, Nepal, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.  Technically three of these were not a traditional Ph.D. viva, as it included one Doctorate in Professional Practice (at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen), a D. Phil. at the University of Oxford and acting as pre-examiner for a Ph.D. at a university on Finland.  In addition I have also acted six times as an internal examiner at the University of Aberdeen (n=3) and Bournemouth University (n=3).  Over the years some of the experiences related to examining and supervision Ph.D. theses have resulted in papers and book chapters [1-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4.
  3. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  4. Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Converting your Master’s or Doctoral Thesis into an Academic Paper for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 184-189.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education & Research 12(2): 61-74.

It is all about experience

Delicious links, international, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

This week we published a paper on the experience of conducting fieldwork in the public health field in the Journal of Health Promotion. [1] Fieldwork is usually a crucial part of PhD research, not only in the health field. However, few researchers write about this, often challenging, process. This paper highlights various occasions where fieldwork in the area of public health, health promotion or community health was more difficult than expected or did not go as planned. Our reflections on working in the field are aimed at less experienced researchers to support them in their research development. Moreover, this paper is also calling upon health researchers to share more details about the process of doing fieldwork and its trials and tribulations. Our key advice is to be inquisitive and open-minded around fieldwork, followed by: be prepared for your fieldwork, conduct a risk assessment of what might go wrong, and consider your resources and options to overcome such trials and tribulations. Fieldwork can be unpredictable.  We believe it is important to share practical lessons from the field which helps other to better understand these tribulations, and learn from them. Finally, sharing such information may guide new researchers and help them identify strategies that can address those issues and challenges in their future studies.

Dr. Preeti Mahato (at Royal Holloway, University of London), Dr Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada (both based at the University of Huddersfield) are all BU Visiting Faculty.  Moreover, I have had the pleasure of acting as PhD supervisor for five of my co-authors.  I have included in this blog what is probably my favourite fieldwork photo taken a decade ago by former BU PhD student Dr. Sheetal Sharma.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

 

References:

  1. Mahato, P., Tamang, P., Simkhada, B., Wasti, S. P., Devkota, B., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2022) Reflections on health promotion fieldwork in Nepal: Trials and tribulations. Journal of Health Promotion 10(1): 5–12. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50978

New paper FHSS Visiting Faculty

NHS, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

The latest issue of the journal Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance includes the paper ‘The birth of a lullaby and these COVID years’ by Jillian Ireland, who is BU Visiting Faculty.  Jillian is Visiting Faculty in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and Professional Midwifery Advocate in Poole Maternity Hospital, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD). 

Her new paper describes the birth (an appropriate verb to be used by a midwife) of a lullaby. This particular lullaby grew from a community-based maternity care intervention.  This project was funded by the Burdett Fund for Nurses, supported by the Foundation of Nursing Studies, and co-created by local women and staff  from maternity, health visiting and the Children’s Centre in the community.  The beautiful illustrations in this paper are by two local artists: Alan Mercel-Sanca and Allison Churchill.

Reference:

Ireland, J. (2022) The birth of a lullaby and these COVID years, Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance, 12: 39–52,  https://doi.org/10.1386/peet_00045_1

Congratulations to Dr. Daisy Wiggins

Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Midwifery Lecturer Daisy Wiggins on the publication of her paper ‘Could a decision support tool be the key to supporting choice for women regarding place of birth?’ and her co-author Prof. Vanora Hundley.  This paper, based on her Ph.D. studies, has been accepted by the international journal Midwifery (academic publisher = Elsevier).

New BU midwifery paper published this week

NHS, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Prof. Vanora Hundley in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal &Perinatal Health (CMMPH) who published the paper ‘Effective communication: core to promoting respectful maternity care for disabled women’ in the international journal Midwifery. This paper is co-authored with BU Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland who is Professional Midwifery Advocate at Poole Maternity Hospital, University Hospital Dorset (UHD), and two former BU staff members: Dr. Bethan Collins & Dr. Jenny Hall.

Congratulations,

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Reference: 

Collins, C., Hall, J., Hundley, V., Ireland, J. (2022) Effective communication: core to promoting respectful maternity care for disabled women’, Midwifery. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2022.103525