In 2017, Iolanthe made awards to 11 students and 8 midwives and awarded the Elizabeth Duff Award and the Jean Davies Award to two further projects.
Watch our film of the 2017 Awards Ceremony, held at Bush House in London in September 2017
Student Award Winners
Claire Welford, studying at the University of Bradford, volunteered in a Refugee Women's Centre in Dunkirk
Eleanor Cramer, a student midwife from Anglia Ruskin University trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction with a view to teaching Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting as a specialist mental health midwife
Kate Mackay, from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) attended the Midwifery Today conference in Finland, to enhance her knowledge of normal birth and enable her to care for women in a midwife-led unit in a remote area of Scotland.
Linda Owusu, a student midwife from London South Bank University travelled to Ghana for her elective placement, focussing on the support for vulnerable women.
Elena Uderzo, City University of London will use her award to fund places for ten student midwives and ten midwives to attend the Fertility Festival 2018, bringing an awareness about fertility and infertility through theatre, art, literature and poetry
Lydia Hook, studying at University of Southampton, visited a birthing centre in New Zealand, to see how they facilitate such high rates of normal birth and the role of continuity of care.
Sarah Scarlett, University of the West of Scotland, attended a British Sign Language course to improve communication with deaf women receiving maternity care.
Ruby Scott, a student midwife from Edinburgh Napier University, undertook an elective placement at an independent midwifery practice in California.
Savannah Dallas, studying at the University of Salford, traveled to a Women's Centre in Florida, looking after vulnerable women and those without health insurance.
Victoria Young, a student midwife from London South Bank University, volunteered supporting pregnant women, mothers and babies in Greece.
Sophie Hall, a student midwife from University of York, spent two weeks in Mexico, on an elective placement with a midwife specialising in birth outside the acute hospital setting.
Find out more about Student Awards
Midwife Award Winners
Polly Sands, a midwife working at Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, attended a counselling course to help set up a Listening Clinic for pregnant women.
Becky Westbury, a midwife from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, attended a birth yoga instructors' course with a view to offering free yoga in pregnancy courses for women.
Debbie Garrod, a midwife based at University Hospital of South Manchester, is using her funding for her PhD research: How do midwives and fathers communicate during labour and birth? An ethnographic study in NW England. Debbie also gained the Ann Stewart award, given at the discretion of the trustees.
Dominique Mylod, a midwife from Bournemouth University, is researching whether having a birth ball at home in early labour improves birth outcomes (The Ball Assisted Latent Labour ]BALL] trial). Her funding helped with the cost of birth balls.
Helen Watson, who works at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, gave an oral presentation at the International Confederation of Midwives Triennial Congress in Toronto on discrimination of Romani women in maternity care in Europe. Her award helped to fund her travel and accommodation costs.
Judith Elwood, based at Ulster University, used her award to fund her attendance at the Royal College of Nursing International Nursing Research conference where she gave an oral presentation on research into genetic markers to identify women at risk of postnatal depression.
Kerry Phillips, a midwife from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, is organising a conference on Birth Trauma. Her award will help fund speakers and provide free places for student midwives.
Laura Abbott, a midwife from University of Hertfordshire, is using her award to enable her to finish writing up her PhD of an ethnographic study looking at the experience of pregnant women in prison.
Find out more about Midwives Awards
The joint Iolanthe/RCM Jean Davies Award
This was awarded to Susan Crowther and Annie Lau from the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. They are carrying out research to identify the needs of Polish migrant women accessing maternity services in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Find out more about the Jean Davies Award
The 1st Elizabeth Duff Award
This was awarded to Rachel Buisson-Lex, an independent midwife from Dorset, who is undertaking a pilot study research the viability of arrangements for independent midwives and NHS trusts to work together to care for women.
