The new look Midwifery Research Fellowship is designed to assist a midwife in the final stages of completing his/her doctorate degree. This award is unique in targeting the writing up phase rather than the research phase of the doctorate. The aim is to facilitate the writing process – for example the applicant might choose to use the funding to buy time out from his/her clinical or teaching duties.

 

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The Iolanthe Midwifery Research Fellowship is normally awarded every second year, however due to the current economic climate no decision has yet been made about the timing of the next award. Please watch this website for further information.   The Iolanthe Midwifery Research Fellowship is open to applicants who: are midwives registered with the United Kingdom (UK) Nursing and Midwifery Council; are PhD students registered with a UK university; have completed the actual research study (i.e. data collection and analysis); intend to submit their thesis within 12 months of the start of the award. An amount of around £25,000 will be made available to the successful award winner. The award is a personal award and as such will only be paid directly to an individual rather than a hospital or other institution.     The 2008 Midwifery Research Fellowship will be awarded to midwife Julie Wray, who is pursuing her PhD studies at the Salford Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Collaborative Research, University of Salford. The Fellowship will provide funding for the final phase of the doctorate, to be submitted in 2009. Julie’s research focuses on what she terms ‘birth recovery’ – the period in which new mothers receive postnatal care - and the following months. Julie writes that: ‘This time after birth is profound and overwhelming as women embark upon their adjustment to mothering … around 23% of women have a surgical birth and so will be regarded as ‘post-operative’ after birth. In many ways women are rehabilitating, in that it involves a continuous and multi-faceted process requiring a range of skills and expertise’. Professionally, being supported to complete the PhD on a topic and methodology that has been marginalised at times would contribute towards “added value” and meaning to the study and to midwifery. I feel that the voices of these women and their stories could act as a strong platform to improve postnatal care in the future … Personally, this is such a wonderful opportunity and I am so proud to be selected for the 2008 award’.     Mary Stewart received the 2006 Midwifery Research Fellowship. Her research explored midwives' and women's experiences of vaginal examination in labour and a deconstruction of these experiences to consider how power is negotiated between the protagonists (abstract). This fellowship enabled Mary to complete her doctorate degree and submit her thesis by allowing her time out from her current practice. Mary said: "I am writing to try and express my profound gratitude to you all for granting me the Iolanthe Midwifery Fellowship last year.  The Fellowship enabled me to take a sabbatical from work, from November 2006 – May 2007, and this six-month period gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in writing up my thesis.  I truly believe that without this opportunity, I may never have completed the writing up.  I was finding it impossible to create time for the concentration I needed for this process alongside my full-time work.  Since applying for the Fellowship I have also changed jobs and am now working as a research midwife at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, working on the Birthplace in England research programme.  I believe that my success in achieving this post was also due in large part to the fact that I have submitted my thesis and so was an added benefit of the Fellowship."  Read more about what this meant to Mary.   Previous Iolanthe Midwifery Research Fellowships have looked at litigation in midwifery, perineal suturing and the effect of an exercise regime on postnatal back pain. The 1999 winner of the Research Fellowship, Billie Hunter, used her award to look at emotion work in midwifery. You can read her report of the project here.