Lynn has worked for Barnsley Hospital for 34 years, 32 of these in maternity. Working initially on maternity wards. Then took an opportunity to work has a Community MSW. In 2014 took an opportunity to pilot a maternity smoking cessation team alongside midwife. Lynn then worked full time in wellbeing team working alongside Mental wellbeing midwife/Teenage pregnancy midwife and substance use midwives and smoking cessation. For the last few years worked in smoking cessation reducing SATOD, and alongside Mental Wellbeing Midwives supporting mainly in MUMS group and supporting the wellbeing team.

Ellie began working as a Maternity Support Worker on the Midwifery Led Unit at New Cross Hospital. She did this to gain hands on experience in working alongside registered midwives prior to starting the university course. This opened up the opportunity to apply for the Midwifery Apprenticeship.

With over thirty years’ experience in various leadership roles, Sally is a passionate midwife dedicated to shaping midwifery practice through education, research, and leadership to ensure safe, high-quality, and compassionate care. Committed to advancing career opportunities for Maternity Support Workers, she led the creation of the first MSW Competency, Education and Career framework and established Midwifery Degree Apprenticeships. Her ongoing efforts at the RCM include advocating for the recognition and advancement of the MSW role across the UK’s four nations. Sally’s contributions to the NHS and the Midwifery Profession have been recognised with an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University.

Sioned is a member of the Medical Affairs team at Medela AG, Switzerland. She is an International Certified Lactation Consultant, registered general, paediatric nurse, and health visitor. Her enthusiasm to drive lactation best practice for mothers of infants led to her role as an educator with Medela. Her role is to keep abreast of the latest research into human milk and lactation, communicating this knowledge through creating accredited distant learning lactation modules to share the scientific understanding of basic physiology of human lactation, specifically critical interventions in the first hours and days after birth to provide clinicians and mothers’ evidence based knowledge.

Alifia Chakera is the Head of Pharmaceutical Sustainability with Scottish Government’s Health Infrastructure and Sustainability Division. Alifia’s interests include improving care pathways and decision-making frameworks to become more environmentally sustainable. Her research into nitrous oxide mitigation led to her establish the award-winning Nitrous Oxide Project which has taken root globally. Alifia has a long-standing commitment to health system strengthening and tackling health inequalities. She is a co-founder of Pharmacy Declares a professional network committed to environmental sustainability. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alifia-chakera/

Alison qualified as a Midwife in 2005 from the University of Salford and has spent her career working in the North West Region. In 2021 she was appointed as Deputy Head of Midwifery at Liverpool Womens NHS FT and is passionate about ensuring continued Education, Training & Development of the Maternity Workforce. Alison’s vision and leadership to deliver a reimagined Preceptorship programme has supported the Trust to improve Midwifery retention and was winner of the NT Preceptorship Programme of the Year 2023

Amanda is the Director of Clinical Implementation at Genomics England, providing strategic clinical leadership in the delivery of programmes and services across Genomics England, particularly the Newborn Genomes Programme. She received her Master of Science in Genetic Counselling from the University of Toronto, and has previously worked as a clinical genetic counsellor in Canada and England. Her work focusses on implementing genomic medicine research into clinical care, addressing ethical challenges and educating healthcare professionals to deliver effective patient and family-centred care.

Caitlin has joined the Royal College of Midwives as the Professional Advisor for Leadership and Career Development. Caitlin continues to work in the NHS as a Consultant Midwife. She has been a practicing midwife for over 20 years holding a variety of leadership positions such as Shift Leader for a Birth Centre, Practice Development Midwife, Clinical Placement Facilitator, Matron and Consultant Midwife. She has led on several large NHS projects which include opening two birth centres and maternity services reconfiguration as well as more recently, developing and launching successful continuity of carer teams. At the RCM, Caitlin is leading the leadership development programme for Band 7 midwives and the new career framework for MSWs and Midwives. She is dedicated to improving maternity services and midwifery.

Camella Main is Lead Midwife for London Ambulance Service and Consultant Midwife for East Midlands Ambulance Service. She has worked in clinical and leadership roles at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as well as in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Tanzania and Haiti. She has completed a Post-graduate certificate in Neuro-Behavioural Physical Assessment of the Newborn course, is a Newborn Life Support Instructor and has completed a Masters degree in Enhanced Maternity Care. Steve started his career in 1995 as an Aeronautical engineer, working for the Ministry of Defence, servicing and maintaining fast jet aircraft for the Royal Air force. Steve left engineering in 2005 and joined the Welsh Ambulance service as an Emergency Medical Technician, Steve progressed to Paramedic, Clinical Team Leader, Advanced Paramedic practitioner, Health Board clinical lead, finishing at his current role as Consultant Paramedic. Steve has always had a passion for prehospital maternity care and has worked tirelessly to improve prehospital maternity care in Wales, bringing in many new initiatives, equipment, and pathways. Steve has been an active member of the national maternity leads group since its inception and is now the co-chair of the group. Steven and Camella are co-chairs of the National Pre-Hospital Maternity Care Leads group and has recently become a MBRRACE assessor for Pre-hospital maternity care.

Carla Stanke is a qualified public health professional with nearly 20 years of diverse public health experience spanning three continents. Driven by her commitment to meaningfully address health inequities, Carla is passionate about maternal and child health and credits her roots as a reproductive health activist as the inspiration for her career in public health. As the Public Health Specialist for the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP), Carla aims to deliver a high-quality, evidence-based programme that supports LEAP children to have the very best start in life and use learning to enable the development of stronger support systems around families.

Carmel Doyle a midwife for more than 20 years, proud to have worked for Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. Demonstrates her passion for supporting women and families in the perinatal period, a challenging time for some parents. Carmel in her work as an enhanced midwife recognised the need to offer more support for complex vulnerable families . Carmel has advocated for this within her work as a community team leader and her work with Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s Health and Maternity Programme. Carmel was Lead midwife for Mersey Care’s Maternal Mental Health Service and now Operational Manager for the Building Attachment and Bonds service supporting a truly integrated model with social care, health, and third sector agencies

Charlie has led on the national policy and implementation of Perinatal Pelvic Health Services since their announcement in the Long Term Plan. In his wider work within the Maternity and Neonatal Programme, Charlie also oversees policy relating to Maternal Medicine Networks, and the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle.

Chrissy has worked in various support worker positions and hospitals since 2001. In 2008 she became an MSW with the aim of training to become a Midwife. However, she found the MSW role was what she loved to do within maternity care. Within her Band 3 MSW role she found an interest in feeding support. In 2017 she became a Band 3 Infant Feeding Support Worker. She is now a Band 4 Infant Feeding Support Worker with a self-funded IBCLC qualification. In 2020 Chrissy became an RCM Steward and MSW advocate. This has enabled Chrissy to help advocate for recognising MSW roles as a profession. Providing teaching sessions on the importance of utilising an appraisal; having a pro-active approach to sourcing education wants and needs, and how to build a portfolio. “We need more career progression pathways for MSWs and fair appraisal processes with secured funding”

Clare has a background in midwifery, public health and politics. She has worked for the RCM for over 10 years, in both a professional and trade union roles.

Dalvir has been a qualified midwife for the past 14 years. She has experience working in the NHS, private sector and in higher education. Dalvir joined University Hospital Leicester this year as their first Consultant Midwife Lead for Inclusivity. She is passionate about supporting maternity services to become more inclusive and was a panel member in the publication of the 2023 MBRRACE- UK confidential enquiry, comparing the care of Black and White women and Asian and White women who have had a stillbirth or neonatal death. Dalvir is also a registrant panel member for the NMC Fitness to Practice hearings.

Didi trained as a midwife in Brighton and has worked clinically alongside teaching antenatal classes for over a decade. She is currently the Trust’s first Band 7 Communications and Social Media Midwife, a role developed for her at the start of the Pandemic.

For just over 4 years, Donna has worked as the National Clinical Lead Midwife for Genomics at NHS England to drive and support the integration of genomics into maternity and neonatal services. In the past she’s held a variety of senior midwifery positions at clinical, regional, and national levels and had a spell of free-lance work for the RCOG and then Department of Health. Throughout her career her absolute drive and focus has always been in screening, genetics, education, fetal and women’s health. In 2023, the 16th ed. of ‘Maye’s Midwifery, Textbook for Midwives’ was published which included the first ever chapter on genetics and genomics of which Donna was a co-author. She is co-chair of the Fetal and Women’s Health GeNotes National Group and belongs to the Generation Genome Education Team at the University of Bristol where she teaches on the post-graduate fully validated PGCert in Genomics for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals course.

Dr Mo Tabib is a midwifery lecturer at Robert Gordon University in Scotland. She has worked in a range of roles as a hospital, community, independent and research midwife, prior to embarking an academic role. Mo’s current research interests and publications are focused on the influence of the educational interventions on the wellbeing of expectant parents, future and current midwives. In her PhD, she undertook a mixed-method study, exploring the influence of a single antenatal relaxation class on maternal psychological wellbeing and childbirth experiences. She currently leads a research project on the influence of an Emotional Intelligence education programme on Midwives’ wellbeing and their experiences of practice. Mo’s work is recognised nationally and internationally with several publications and invited conference presentations.

Eileen Dudley is a Senior Programme Lead and Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Lead at Health Innovation Oxford and Thames Valley Patient Safety Collaborative. Eileen leads the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme and continues to practice clinically as a midwife. She has held various roles within the NHS including operational, supervision and quality improvement and holds an MSc in Senior Healthcare Leadership. Eileen is project lead for the HSJ award- winning Intelligent Intermittent Auscultation in Labour project. The aim of the project is to improve safety for mothers and babies in low-risk labour and birth by improving the knowledge, skills and confidence of midwives. Eileen is an advocate for multiprofessional education to improve outcomes and experience for families and safety in healthcare. Eileen has recently graduated with distinction as a Multi-professional Simulation Based Education Fellow (NHS England SE).

Emilie Edwards is an autistic Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Middlesex University and neurodiversity advocate. She believes that listening to the lived experiences of neurodivergent and disabled people is essential to drive coherent, consistent, and concrete changes within institutions, with the aim of eliminating discrimination. She focuses on developing innovative, inclusive, and accessible teaching and learning resources. Her previous work has included leading the development of the RCM iLearn module on Neurodiversity in the Workplace, publications on supporting neurodivergent students and policy changes to support neurodivergent midwives. Her tireless dedication to improving accessibility and neurodivergence acceptance have led to a profile in teaching and learning, that has seen her recognised in achieving institutional and national awards for neurodiversity advocacy.

Fiona Dry Training & Development Lead Fiona joined Pause in December 2018 as the Training and Workforce Development Lead. Fiona has over 30 years’ experience working in the NHS and third sector to support vulnerable women and families, as a specialist midwife and also as a regional facilitator for the national charity Best Beginnings. From 2016, Fiona took on the unique and innovative role of specialist midwife for the judicial system, working directly with women in custody in County Durham and developing a regional model for prison maternity care. Fiona led the team at Low Newton Prison to achieve the Health Services Journal patient safety award for best maternity and midwifery service 2018. She lives with her husband and family in County Durham and enjoys fell running and amateur dramatics in her

Since qualifying as a nurse (1984) and midwife (1987), Gillian has held several senior professional posts. Most of her clinical experience was gained in midwifery, predominantly in labour ward and community midwifery teams. Gillian subsequently became the Board’s Director for Women’s, Children’s, and Sexual Health Services. A strong clinical leader with front-line, operational, and strategic experience, Gillian has creatively and collaboratively delivered a wide range of changes and improvements in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment. Gillian’s is passionate about developing people and was awarded an MBE in 2020 for her services to healthcare. Her most fulfilling role is that of granny to four extraordinary grandchildren.

Helen qualified as a nurse in 1997 and a midwife in 2004 at Coventry University. She has worked in many areas of maternity at Warwick Hospital and her current role is as a Band 7 Labour Ward Coordinator. Helen has maintained her Nursing registration and until recently, also worked as a Clinical Supervisor for the UK Vaccination Program. Helen has always had an interest in Leadership and this has driven a passion to become a strong leader for her team. Helen was fortunate to undertake the RCM Leadership behaviour, quality improvement and Network development programme in the Manchester Cohort at the end of 2023. This has led to her working with her QI Lead to implement a midwife led outpatient Induction of Labour process with a specific induction agent.

Jeannine Joseph is a Sickle Cell patient, that has been working to improve awareness and education for Sickle Cell patients for over a decade. Jeannine is now involved with Sickle Cell research, to help improve care and access to treatments for better health outcomes and experiences for patients across the country.

Joanne is a midwife, lecturer, and doctoral student at the University of Central Lancashire. She currently holds a National Institute for Health Research Wellbeing of Women Doctoral Fellowship to study how maternity services can empower pregnant women affected by trauma history to seek support. She previously held a Health Education England / National Institute for Health Research Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship, during which she completed an MSc in Implementation and Improvement Science at King’s College London. Before becoming a midwife she spent 10 years as a Chartered Accountant, undertaking a variety of roles in the private and charitable sectors.

Jonny has been working in Higher Education for over 13 years, primarily in the online learning sector. Working with medical courses such as Nursing, Radiography and Paramedic Science for the last 6, he recently switched roles to become a project manager, working with NHSE and 6 ICBs in the South East. Despite not having a medical background he has thoroughly enjoyed working with the different teams that make up the NHS and trying to understand the problems they face on a daily basis. He hopes he can add valuable contributions in order to achieve the long term workforce plan’s main objectives.

For a decade, Josephine has worked as a midwife in South East London, honing her skills across diverse clinical environments and was appointed to Practice Development Midwife in 2017. In 2022, Josephine was the first midwife to be enrolled on the Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellowship. Collaborating with the national Greener NHS and Chief Nursing Office teams, she showcases the vital role of maternity care in achieving NHS Net Zero targets while spearheading eco-conscious care practices.

Karen joined Welsh Government in November 2016. In her role as the first Chief Midwifery officer for Wales, she leads policy on Maternity, Neonatal care and Breastfeeding, linking with both the women’s health and Early years agendas. Since her time in Government, she has led on the future Maternity Vision for Wales, Clinical Supervision for Midwifery framework and the Breastfeeding action plan. More recently she has driven policy change including the Maternity and Neonatal safety support programme, a review of the Birth-rate plus acuity tool and the Digital Maternity Cymru programme.

Kate Brintworth, RM, BSc (Hons) MSc is the Chief Midwifery Officer for NHS England and has worked strategically across many parts of the maternity system, including as Regional Chief Midwife for London, Head of Maternity Transformation at the Royal College of Midwives, and Head of Maternity Commissioning for East London, leading the delivery of the STP Maternity Plan, East London ‘Better Birth’ Pioneer Programme and development of the Local Maternity System. Kate has also been part of national and regional maternity networks, London Local Supervising Authority, national expert reference groups for commissioning, postnatal and continuity of care, and research steering groups for complex programmes of research. She has worked in multiple roles as a midwife including as a community midwife, labour ward co-ordinator and manager. Special interests are: reducing inequalities for both staff and service users, system working, organisation of services to support midwives and service users, coproduction, tariff and women making complex care choices.

Kerry is one of two Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Midwives based at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. Kerry is also a mother who has lived in experiences of perinatal mental illness. She campaigns for mental wellbeing to have parity of esteem alongside physical health and works hard to develop primary preventative measures so that help is provided to patients before mental health crisis is reached.

Laura is Director of Midwifery in Dumfries & Galloway, a large geographical Board with many remote and rural areas. Having worked as a midwife in both Ayrshire and Glasgow she brings a breadth of midwifery experiences. Additionally her previous national roles as Professional Advisor for Scottish Government and Maternity Advisor for the Healthcare Staffing Programme, have developed her skills and expertise in maternity workforce planning. Laura chaired the development of a national Maternity Real Time Staffing resource and subsequent review of the Scottish Maternity Staffing Level Tool. Currently undertaking a fellowship with the Royal College of Physicians on Quality Governance Collaboratives.

Lesley and Emma are bereavement midwife and senior midwife on labour ward respectively. They have both worked at the Countess of Chester for over 15 years. They have been heavily involved in every aspect of Oscars story from the first draft, through to the final printed copy. Emma has written before but this is the first time that her work has been published. Lesley works tirelessly with our bereaved families, offering support that goes way beyond the closing of the labour ward doors. They are both so proud of what they have achieved and hope that it brings comfort to others.

Lisa has over 30 years’ experience as a midwife, and has held several clinical and education roles, including senior management and quality enhancement. Lisa has experience of higher education systems, governance, policy and regulation. She is a senior fellow of the HEA, has a Master’s in Education and a Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice. Lisa led the team in the review and refresh of the MSW Framework and development of an implementation guide. Lisa is passionate about safe care and believes that this starts with influencing the education and training of the current and future maternity and midwifery workforce.

Lorraine has worked within the NHS for 35 years, primarily within maternity services and as an Advanced Specialist Midwife supporting families with substance use. She has been central to the development of Lanarkshire’s Additional Midwifery Service which won awards for the RCM Reducing Inequality Award in 2017 and the Scottish Government Quality Improvement Awards, Outstanding contribution to improving outcomes for children, young people, and their families in 2016. Lorraine has championed the core principles of embedding trauma informed practice within her service and has been leading on Scotland’s National Trauma Transformation Programme Maternity pathfinder projects from January 2022.

Marcia has worked at Dr Grays for 24 years as a midwife. Then in 2019 taking on a supporting role implementing the National Bereavement Care Pathways as part of the pilot. This lead to Marcia taking on the role of bereavement support midwife working across grampian supporting families following their loss. Marcia is passionate about improving bereavement care and support for families and ensuring staff are supported to provide high-quality bereavement care.

Maria first registered as a general nurse in 1989 and a midwife in 1991 and has worked as a nurse and a midwife throughout her career. Maria was appointed Chief Nursing Officer for the Department of Health for Northern Ireland in March 2022. She previously worked across a range of acute and community settings within Health and Social care in England and Scotland in clinical, professional leadership, operational management, and strategic roles. She was the chief midwife/nurse for women’s services within NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, Scotland and for 3 years during this time was also the Chief Nurse for the Department of for Clinical Neurosciences, NHS Lothian. In 2015 Maria took up the chief nurse role for the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership and Integrated Joint Board before taking up as post as professional nurse advisor within the Scottish Government between Jan 2018 and March 2022.

Melissa has been in the role of Maternal Mental Health Midwife at Barnsley Hospital for 3 years, with a particular focus on birth trauma and trauma informed care. Leading on the development and delivery of the Maternal Mental Health Service within her local Trust and working alongside the regional team. Melissa is passionate about empowering and supporting women and birthing people affected by birth trauma, through 1-1 support, group settings and antenatal education classes. Melissa also continues to work in a clinical role and has previous experience working in all areas of maternity including hospital, community and continuity settings.

Michael Johnson-Ellis He | Him | His Co-Founder & Co-CEO, My Surrogacy Journey® Michael is married to Wes and a Dad via UK surrogacy and egg donation. Talulah was born in 2016 and Duke born in 2019. Michael is multi award winning fertility blogger, author and fertility campaigner driving change related to surrogacy and equitable access to fertility treatment funding. Michael manages the successful social media channel TwoDadsUK® which can be regular seen supporting the UK fertility industry and educating those interested in UK surrogacy since 2016. Michael contributes on a number of APPG’s and has been involved in driving UK legislative and policy changes along with Wes, related to surrogacy maternity services and LGBTQIA parenting and fertility. Alongside Wes, Michael founded TwoDadsUK® The Modern Family Show, and My Surrogacy Journey® In 2021 was awarded one of only 21 purple plaques to be attached to a UK building by CensusUK for his work during lockdown for supporting the fertility community.

Monica trained as a midwife at Kings College University of London in 2007. Since graduation, she has worked in all areas of midwifery practise including various operational and leadership roles. Since 2021, Monica has worked as the Senior Project Manager for the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service in Southeast London which is an early implementer for PPHS. In 2023 the team received the RCM Award for Partnership and teamworking working and presented their PPHS model in the International Continence Society held in Toronto. Monica is a charted management Institute (CMI) Senior Leader and has an MBA from Ashridge Executive Education (Hult University). She has a special interest in team work, system leadership, and engagement with marginalised or underrepresented communities.

Manraj is a Senior Net Zero Delivery Manager in the Greener NHS Programme at NHS England. Her work focuses on the delivery of the NHS net zero commitments, through initiatives to transform clinical care and services with a patient centred approach to low carbon care. She is a specialist urology registrar, has completed a leadership and sustainability clinical fellowship and has experience working on Global Health projects and research for health system strengthening.

Bio Nafiza is a Nurse Midwife with over 38 years’ experience across a wide range of health-related and women’s health issues. She qualified as a Nurse in 1989 and went on to complete her midwifery in 2002 from City University London. She has worked in various roles from a clinician, educationalist, manager, service improvement and project management. She has developed a strong passion for inequalities in health especially in maternity services and is driven to influence and initiate change in the healthcare systems not just in the UK but in the developing world too. In pursuit of her passion, she completed a Public Health MSc, secured a scholarship with DFID, and worked as a project manager for Women’s health projects in South Asia. Her passion for inequalities led to her Co Founding the Association of South Asian Midwives. The aim of which is to set about improving maternity services for women and families who use the service as well as those providing the service and focusing on the barriers that are faced by these communities from the global majority. Nafiza is also a panel member for MBRRACE-UK perinatal confidential enquiry and is a member of the Capital Midwife EDI Advisory group. She is also part of the Men and Diversity in Midwifery: National Equity and Equality Steering Group with the aim to provide equity for women and babies in maternity within the NHS and embed equality for all staff. She has been a consultant volunteer with the Bangladesh RCM Twinning project over the last few years providing mentorship support to the young midwifery leaders as well as providing support to the Bangladesh Midwifery Society. She is a member of the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Midwifery Officer BAME Strategic Advisory Group. Her organisation ASAM secured funding from Florence Nightingale foundation to develop a welcome programme for internationally recruited midwives to support them on their NHS journey. In her NHS role as Lead Maternal Medicine midwife, for NEL she was integral in developing the Maternal Medicine service across Northeast London. She was awarded the RCM Fellowship in 2022 and has recently secured the prestigious Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholarship. Nafiza was also invited by HRH King Charles to attend a celebration event at Buckingham palace to acknowledge nurses and midwives working in UK as part of his 75th birthday celebrations on Nov 14th 2023.

Nic is a 3rd year student midwife on the masters programme at Edinburgh Napier. Nic represents Scotland on the student midwife forum with the RCM. Nic is passionate about LGBTQ+ representation in maternity services and knows first hand the challenges that this community can face when accessing health and maternity care. Nic is also the lead for equality, diversity and inclusion, advocating for underrepresented women and birthing people in maternity services.

Nicola is a MSW with a passion for MSW education and career development. She started as a Community MSW with the intention of becoming a Midwife, she quickly realised Midwifery wasn’t for her and being an MSW is a career in its own right. Nicola was seconded to the LMNS to assist in the implementation of the MSW Framework. In November 2022, Nicola received a CMidO Award for Maternity Support Worker Excellence & now works as an MSW Educator, working with the Practice Education Team providing peer support and specific education, training and career pathways for MSWs across UHMBT.

Nicola is a Midwife at Southend University Hospital working as a Labour ward coordinator and Hypnobirthing teacher. These roles led Nicola to look at the power of language between staff and clients. This steered Nicola to embark on the Syndeo leadership course. Learning new leadership skills helped to shape her knowledge on what she had already experienced in practice to form her QI project on ‘Creating change for behaviour and culture on Labour Ward with the use of positive Language’. “A good Midwife can mean the difference between a difficult birth being traumatic, and a difficult birth being empowering”.

Paula began her career within the NHS as a Registered Nurse in 1993 before embarking on a successful career as a Registered Midwife in 2003. After several years working as a clinical Midwife, Paula recognised her passion for midwifery education and took up the role of midwifery lecturer, working at both Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton where she completed her Master’s in Education. After some years, Paula returned to clinical practice. Combining her enthusiasm for midwifery and education, Paula specialised as a Practice Development Midwife with a particular focus on pre-registration.

Ms Paula Igualada-Martinez qualified as a physiotherapist in Spain (1995-1998) at Ramon Llull University and in 2000 obtained a BSc degree in Rehabilitation Therapy at Manchester University. In 2011 she completed her MSc in Women’s Health Physiotherapy at Oxford Brookes University. Since graduation she has worked in various hospitals across the UK. In 2007 she became the Clinical Lead for the Pelvic Health Physiotherapy Service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation (London). This has allowed her to work with the urology, urogynaecology, colorectal, obstetric, pain and psychosexual teams giving her a great insight into the advanced assessment and treatment of pelvic floor disorders. In 2020, she started working at Brunel University as a Clinical Lecturer at the Advanced Clinical Practice in Pelvic Health postgraduate course. In 2022 she started her tenure as a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy. In April 2022, she was appointed to clinically lead the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service across the Southeast London and Neonatal clinical system (LMNS). The Perinatal Pelvic Health Service (PPHS) is a national NHS England and NHS Improvement phased implementation pilot project to improve access to postnatal physiotherapy and multidisciplinary pelvic health clinics.

Poppy is a Lecturer on the Maternity Pathway of the FdSc Healthcare Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship and CertHE Senior Healthcare Support Worker Apprenticeship at Birmingham City University. Poppy is a registered Midwife and started working with MSW education and development at Birmingham City University in March 2023. Prior to this Poppy worked closely with MSWs in clinical practice which ignited her passion for the role of the MSW in the provision of Maternity Care and the difference MSWs make to birthing people’s experiences.

Professor Alison McFadden is a midwife researcher. She leads the multi-disciplinary Mother and Infant Research Unit at the University of Dundee. Her research is focussed on maternal and infant health, quality of maternity care, infant feeding and evidence-based policy and practice within the UK and globally. Her work focusses on reducing health inequities for mothers and babies with a recent focus on Gypsy and Traveller communities in the UK.

Hora leads the Maternal and Infant Health Research (MIHR) theme with high impact outputs. Hora was listed in the top 2% cited scientists in her field (SCHOLAR GPS). She has been an Editor/Senior Editorial Board Member for journals (e.g. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth) and an expert advisor for organisations such as WHO and Public Health England. Her research is of a collaborative nature, focusing on care models reducing health inequalities for mothers and babies from the most disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds specifically related to maternal nutrition, physical activity and obesity, infant feeding, perinatal mental health, adolescent pregnancy and migration. Hora was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s new year honour list (Dec 2020) for her services to higher education and impact on maternal and infant health, guiding maternity policy development at national and international levels.

Vanora is Professor of Midwifery at Bournemouth University. She is an internationally recognised midwifery researcher, having written widely on pregnancy, maternity care and midwifery. She has led a range of studies in the reproductive health field both in the UK and internationally. She conducted one of the first randomised controlled trials of midwife-led care. More recent work has examined the role of labour practices and their impact on maternal and neonatal outcomes, both in low and high-income settings. Vanora is passionate about research utilisation and believes that midwifery research is key to quality maternity care.

Sarah has been a registered nurse and midwife for over 30 years and has worked in the UK and the USA. Sarah is currently an Associate Professor in Midwifery at London South Bank University with an interest in improving the pregnancy outcomes for high risk women during pregnancy and protecting the cultural identity of women and birthing people. Sarah has published papers on culture, black African women and pregnancy, sickle cell anaemia and FGM. In her former role as a RCN midwifery forum committee member Sarah has contributed to RCN guidance on FGM. Sarah sat for eight years as a NMC fitness to practice panellist and has in-depth knowledge of professional regulation and fitness to practice. Sarah received an RCN innovation award for setting up one of the first labour triage units in London. She also received the first Dora Opoku BAME award to fund her PhD studies, the Ann Steward award for commitment to midwifery practice and the Jean Davies award for inequalities in women’s health from The Iolanthe Midwifery Trust. Sarah is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Hertfordshire exploring the perceptions of Nigerian women and midwives of cultural competency in antenatal care.

Sophie Olson is a CSA survivor activist, author, and founder of The Flying Child CIC – an organisation leading conversation about CSA through survivor-led training, campaigning, and support. Their core aim is to normalise speaking about CSA in society, in professional settings and within the survivor community itself. Their training, The Flying Child Project began in education, and is recognised UK wide, offering bespoke training across many sectors including social work, university settings, foster care, maternity, dentistry, and the NHS. They work independently as an organisation but also as consultants for Barnardos, and in partnership with AC Education and SARSAS. www.theflyingchild.com @theflyingchild

Sue McKellar is the National Bereavement Care Pathway Scotland Manager, her role is supporitng the NHS Boards to implement the pathways into practice, ensuring the voice and views of bereaved parents is kept at the heart of all decisions made. Sue has worked within the third sector for over 25 years and has specialised in working with people who have experienced trauma and supporting those with lived experience to influence and change public policy and legislation.

Susanne Chatterley-Stettler has been a practising midwife for over 30 years and has held senior midwifery management positions for the last 10 years. She works in a busy inner London hospital. She has a keen interest in recruitment, retention, flexible working and exploring ways that allow colleagues to achieve a better work-life balance. Her professional interest is supported by her academic studies. Her doctoral thesis examines factors that influence individuals when making decisions about career progression and explores how systems can adapt to take into consideration the competing demands that exist outside the workplace.

I qualified as a midwife in 2009, having been drawn to Midwifery in the most part due to a fascination with how our bodies work to create new life. I quickly moved into the community setting where I developed a particular passion for attending homebirths- some of my most cherished memories of midwifery occurring during this time. In 2017 I trained in third trimester ultrasound and began work as a Midwife Sonographer. The combination of sonography alongside my midwifery practice has allowed me to learn a great deal, but also has made me realise how much more we don’t know! In the future I am looking forward to developing my research skills and work towards becoming a clinical academic.

Vicky is a senior research midwife and has worked at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust since 2016. Before that, she was a maternity assessment unit sister and an independent midwife. Vicky works on research trials focusing on preterm birth prediction and prevention, fetal medicine, early pregnancy and gynaecology. She is also the lead on the TAPS2 trial, a study looking at the potential for serial prophylactic blood transfusion in pregnant women who have sickle cell. Vicky works with Jeannine Joseph, PPIE lead and is developing resources to increase awareness and education around sickle cell care.

Wes Johnson-Ellis   He | Him | His Co-Founder & Co-CEO, My Surrogacy Journey® Wes has been married to Michael since 2012 and together they have two children via UK surrogacy and egg donation. Wes also has a 19-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. Wes manages the entire UK and international operation for My Surrogacy Journey, and with his team he is responsible for helping #ChangingTheLandscape of UK surrogacy and more recently has developed a brand new pathway in Mexico City, with never before seen support, focusing on ethics and the protection of women with the aim of #SettingTheStandard for Mexico surrogacy. Wes’ Yorkshire tone can often be heard hosting My Surrogacy Journey’s number one Podcast, My Surrogacy Journey – The Podcast Alongside Michael, Wes founded TwoDadsUK®, The Modern Family Show, and My Surrogacy Journey® following the challenges experienced during their own fertility journey, to provide professional, legal, practical and emotional support to support members with their family building options and beyond.

Yasmeen has been a Mental Wellbeing Midwife for many years, prior to this worked alongside the Bereavement midwife. She is passionate in supporting women and their families in the delivery of one to one support and MUMs group (Mums Understand Mums) which helps women build their confidence as parents during the perinatal period. Yasmeen also runs Birth Classes with her colleague Melissa Addy for women and birthing partners empowering them in their choices. Yasmeen is also a Person- centred counsellor offering counselling session to women who have had a pregnancy loss or termination.