The Iolanthe Midwifery Trust is delighted to announce the winners of the 2026 Iolanthe Awards.
The awards given this year are: the Nicolette Peel Award, the Norah Faith Coniam Award, the Jean Davies Award, the Dora Opoku Midwife and Student Midwife Awards, and the Mary Cronk Award, as well as 11 Midwives Awards and 2 Student Awards.
Iolanthe Chair, Eliz Bannon, said
"It is a great pleasure to congratulate this year’s award winners and to continue the work of the Iolanthe Trust on encouraging real inclusion with the award applicants and winners.
The applications were hugely impressive, and we thank all those who applied with such a diverse range of projects focused on making maternity care so much better for birthing women, people, and babies. Our very best wishes to you all."
Iolanthe's Executive Director, Moira Dennison added
"We send our congratulations to the midwives and student midwives who have won an Iolanthe Midwifery Trust Award. We look forward to getting their feedback about the impact that the work that we have funded has on midwifery care."
We are proud to introduce to you our...
2026 Award Winners
The 2026 Iolanthe/Royal College of Midwives Jean Davies Award for addressing health inequalities goes to:
Kristina Goh, a PhD student at Anglia Ruskin University studying under the Cambridge Doctoral Training Programme, whose funding will support her project Intercultural Communication in NHS maternity Care: A community listening session, to gain insight into the maternity experiences and priorities of those with a Somali, Nigerian or Bengali background.
The 2026 Dora Opoku Award for Black and Brown midwives is given to:
Peace Musabi, to undertake the Foundations of Maternal Medicine course at the University of Bolton, which will support her role as maternal medicine specialist midwife at Whittington NHS Trust, as well as her aim to address health inequalities.
The winner of the 2026 Dora Opoku Student Award for Black and Brown student midwives is:
Salma Afridi, a student at the University of the West of Scotland, who will use her funds to complete Federation of Antenatal Educators training, underpinning her delivery of a community maternity project supporting non-English-speaking refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant women in Glasgow.
The 2026 Mary Cronk Award (to an applicant for another award whose project aligns with Mary's passions and values) goes to:
Siobhan Callaghan, a community midwife at the Vale of Leven Hospital, to facilitate a one-day restorative workshop for 30 newly qualified midwives from across Scotland, entitled Continuity, Compassion and Culture: Reconnecting with Midwifery Values, followed by sustained peer support and the creation of a reflective resource pack.
The 2026 Norah Faith Coniam Award (for a project addressing issues around baby loss and bereavement, including early pregnancy loss) goes to:
Sara Balmforth, perinatal midwife at Forget me not Children's Hospice, to explore the possibility of birth within a children’s hospice for babies with life‐shortening conditions.
The 2026 Nicolette Peel Award (for a project or training to improve maternity care of vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people) goes to:
Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, a midwife at King's College Hospital, who will develop and deliver digital educational resources to improve maternity care and outcomes for Jewish women, babies and birthing people through practical training materials for midwives, student midwives and maternity services.
The two winners of Iolanthe's 2026 Student Awards are:
Ann Mette Kjaerby, (above), a midwife returning to frontline services after having worked in sexual and reproductive health and rights policy and advocacy; her funds will support her taking the "Back to the Floor" return to practice module at Guy's and Thomas' NHS Trust.
Saheedat Yekeen, (above), a student at King's College London, whose award will support her to undertake a supervised service-improvement project focused on improving access to maternity information for women experiencing inequalities, as well as to participate in the President’s Global Leadership Award residency, which focuses on leadership, social responsibility, and positive change.
The eleven Iolanthe Midwives Award Winners for 2026 are:
Kate Hampson, (above), a practice development midwife at University Hospital of Wales, who will use her funding to train midwives in the creation of HOPE (hold on, pain eases) boxes developed for mothers about to have a baby removed from their care, by those who have already experienced this, as a new initiative for the Cardiff area.
Laura Abbott, (above), Professor of Maternal Health and Criminal Justice, who will use her funding to deliver a one-day, in-person national learning and reflective retreat for the Prison Midwives Action Group (PMAG), a UK-wide network of midwives working in custodial settings that she founded in 2021.
Alexandra Fisher, (above), a community midwife in Swansea, whose funds will go towards tuition fees for her Masters in Integrative counselling and Psychotherapy, enabling her to become a BACP accredited psychotherapist.
Dr Ella Caine, (above), consultant midwife at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, who will use her award to access Birthrights Core Training for Healthcare Professionals for her Trust's midwives, aiming to facilitate equitable, rights based, respectful conversations with women about their maternity care choices.
Fiona Gibb, (above), Director of Midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, whose funding supports a PhD in Informatics: Artificial Intelligence and its Applications; her work investigates how midwives across the UK experience continuous professional development, leadership opportunities and career progression, and examines whether generative artificial intelligence (AI) could provide practical, ethical, and equitable support in these areas.
Samantha Griffin, (above), a research midwife at Imperial College London, who will use her award to access British Sign Language Level 3 training, to deepen her fluency, confidence and cultural understanding within the Deaf community.
Professor Alison Cooke, (above), Associate Chief Nurse for Research and Education at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, who will team with colleages Drs Angela Hanock and Hazel Smith, to organise a "Research into Practice" learning event for Trust midwives, to encourage the use of research in everyday clinical practice, highlight real-world midwife-led research that has evolved from clinical practice, and increase awareness of research opportunities and midwifery clinical academic career pathways.
Dr Angela Kerrigan, (above), a consultant midwife, who, along with colleague Caitlin Wilson, will research women's experiences of Midwifery Continuity of Carer at Wirral University Teaching Hospital and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals, after both Trusts have successfully implemented this for the majority of their maternity population.
Rebekah Arthur, (above), Consultant Midwife for Population Health and Quality Improvement Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, who will use her award to create protected midwife time to develop the clinical pathways and guidelines required to establish a consistent, evidence‐based model of care for women and pregnant people with social complexities.
Siobhan Callaghan, (above), a community midwife at the Vale of Leven Hospital, to facilitate a one-day restorative workshop for 30 newly qualified midwives from across Scotland, entitled Continuity, Compassion and Culture: Reconnecting with Midwifery Values, followed by sustained peer support and the creation of a reflective resource pack. Siobhan has also received the 2026 Mary Cronk Award.
Dr Harriet Ruysen, (above), a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a midwife at Dumfries and Galloway NHS Trust, who will attend the International Confederation of Midwives 34th Triennial Congress, to present her work, Missed measures for midwives' use: A qualitative study exploring routine data by mode of birth in Bangladesh and Tanzania.
Everyone at Iolanthe joins in sending our congratulations to these visionary midwives and student midwives. We deeply appreciate your work and are excited to see what your Iolanthe Award year will bring.