I was the proud recipient of The Dora Opoku Midwives Award - Funding for Black and Brown midwives in 2020.
I am a nurse and a midwife and currently work at the University of Hertfordshire as a principal midwifery lecturer. I have a special interest in maternal morbidity and mortality.
I am committed to ensuring women and birthing people who experience critical illness during childbirth receive the highest standard of care and have positive experiences.
Childbirth is the safest is has been in the United Kingdom, but women are still dying from preventable causes. Recent reports highlighted that women who died or became critically ill during childbirth were more likely to be obese, from minority ethnic backgrounds or have co-morbidities. Few studies explore experiences of women who survived, but better care could have made a difference for many of those who died.
I am conducting a qualitative study as part of a Doctorate in Health Research, to explore the experiences of women who survived critical illness in childbirth. The aim of the study is to understand how maternity services meet the needs of women and their families, identify any challenges to care and make recommendations to maternity care providers. I am in the data collection and analysis stage of my project. I look forward to completing this much needed research and to be able to share with the participants, health care professionals and the public.
The prestigious Dora Opoku Midwives Award enabled me to provide a token of gratitude to each participant. The families said that they did not expect a reward for sharing their experiences but to be offered one was heartwarming.
I would not have been able to do this without the generous support from the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust.
