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Welcome to the fourth episode of season six, in conversation with Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe. 

Prof McAuliffe's bio:

Fionnuala McAuliffe is a Full Academic Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at National Maternity Hospital Dublin, Head of Women’s and Child’s Health at University College Dublin. She is Director of the UCD Perinatal Research Centre, a multidisciplinary research centre aiming to improve outcome for mother and baby though clinically relevant pregnancy research. She is a maternal and fetal medicine specialist and Director of the MFM training programme at National Maternity Hospital.

She is FIGO Division Director for Maternal and Newborn Health. She is Past Chair of FIGO committee on Impact of Pregnancy on Long- term Health and is a FIGO executive council member. She is lead on FIGO pregnancy obesity and nutrition initiative and FIGO Initiative on impact of pregnancy on long-term health. She is EBCOG council member and Chair of EBCOG Standing Committee for Training and Assessment.

She has received over euro 50 million as CoPI/PI. has over 500 peer reviewed publications including national and international pregnancy care guidelines and has supervised over 20 higher research degrees.

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via X, Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the third episode of season six, in conversation with Professor Cathy Cluver.

Professor Cluver's Bio:

Professor Cathy Cluver is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine subspecialist and clinician researcher. She founded and continues to lead the Preeclampsia Research Unit at Stellenbosch University (www.preeclampsiaresearch.org). This Research Unit is a multidisciplinary multinational research collaboration focussing on understanding and treating preeclampsia. Cathy is currently running her third double blind interventional treatment trial for preterm preeclampsia (PI3 trial), a multicentre preeclampsia prevention trial (APPLE PIE) and studies investigating novel therapeutics to treat preeclampsia (DM199). She is also supervising PhD projects in fetal growth restriction and preterm birth.

Cathy obtained her MMed in 2011 cum laude and was awarded both the Daubenton Medal for outstanding results in the Fellowship examination of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the medal for the Best Postgraduate Student for a Structures Masters Qualification at Stellenbosch University. In 2013 she undertook a Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship at Mercy Hospital for Women, in Melbourne Australia. She then completed her subspecialist training in South Africa in 2016. After completing her PhD in 2019, she was appointed as an associate professor. In 2023 she was appointed as a full professor at Stellenbosch University. She is the youngest appointed professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 2023 she was awarded the Women in Research Award by Stellenbosch University.

She has over 100 publications including publications in the Lancet, BMJ, Lancet Global and Cochrane Library. She has published extensively in leading Obstetrics and Gynaecological journals including the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gyneacology. She has also presented invited plenary sessions at many international and national conferences. 

Cardiac outflow anomalies chart:

https://www.facebook.com/isuog.org/posts/we-are-pleased-to-share-the-fetal-cardiac-outflow-tract-anomalies-chart-with-a-f/10152822749322051/

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via X, Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the second episode of season six, in conversation with Professor Tom Shakespeare. 

Professor Shakespeare's Bio:

Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist and bioethicist. He is Professor of Disability Research at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, having worked at several UK universities and WHO. He is a former member of Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Arts Council England. His books include The Sexual Politics of Disability (1996) and Disability Rights and Wrongs (2006) and most recently the novels The Ha-ha (2024) and The Ends (2025).

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics report that we discussed is called Non-invasive prenatal testing: ethical issues and can be found via this link: https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publication/non-invasive-prenatal-testing-ethical-issues/

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via X, Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the first episode of season six, in conversation with Dr Emma Ferriman.

Dr Ferriman's Bio:

Dr Ferriman graduated from Liverpool Medical School in 1990. From 2001 to 2016, she served as a Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine in Leeds, before taking up her current role in Sheffield in 2016. 

She currently holds the role of President of the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society (BMFMS), Her clinical expertise spans high-risk pregnancies, multile pregnancies, prenatal diagnosis and screening. 

In addition to her medical practice, Emma is actively involved in medicolegal work, serving as an adviser to the General Medicine Council (GMC) and the Medical Protection Society (MPS). She is also an editor and author, contributing to various medicolegal publications. 

Some of the things we discussed included: 

BMFMS: https://www.bmfms.org.uk/default.aspx

The next BMFMS conference will be on 26-27 March in Leeds, UK, and registration and abstract submission is open now: https://bmfmsconference.co.uk/2026/en/page/home

Dr Anthony Hart, paediatric neurologist, who has published many papers including Hart et al (2021) Antenatal counselling for prospective parents whose fetus has a neurological anomaly: part 1, experiences and recommendations for service design (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dmcn.15022)

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via X, Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the fifth episode of season five, in conversation with Professor Pranav Pandya. 

Professor Pandya's Bio:

Professor Pranav P Pandya
BSc MBBS MD FRCOG
Consultant in Fetal Medicine

Pranav Pandya is a Professor in Fetal Medicine at University College London. He is currently the Director and Clinical Lead of Fetal Medicine services at University College London Hospitals.

Pranav is dedicated to caring for pregnant women and in particular the well-being of their baby. His expertise is in the ultrasound examination of the mother and unborn baby(s) with particular interest in first trimester anomalies, fetal cardiology, surgical anomalies and fetal therapy.

Pranav is also the Chair of the Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme Advisory Group at the UK National Screening Committee, where he is involved in developing and implementing national policy on fetal anomaly scanning and screening for fetal aneuploidy and implementation of cell free fetal DNA within the NHS.

He has published extensively in the field of fetal medicine and is Editor in Chief of a major textbook - Fetal Medicine Basic Science and Clinical Practice.

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X), Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the fourth episode of season five, in conversation with Professor Eduard Gratacós. 

Professor Gratacós' Bio 

Prof. Eduard Gratacós is director and professor at BCNatal, a referral clinical and research center in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University Hospitals Clinic and Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona. 

Among other international positions, he has been Board and Scientific Chair at ISUOG, Editor-in-Chief at Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy and Director of the Erasmus Mundus European Doctorate in Fetal Medicine. 

His main research lines have been placental insufficiency, fetal programming and fetal therapy in general, including most recently artificial placenta. He has published +600 peer reviewed papers, directed +60 national and international research projects and +40 doctoral theses. 

He has provided training in maternal-fetal medicine to +400 specialists. 

He is the founder of Fetal Medicine Barcelona, which offers worldwide medical training, with over 25,000 users.

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X), Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the third episode of season five, in conversation with Professor Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman. 

Professor Gyamfi-Bannerman's Bio

Dr. Gyamfi-Bannerman is Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UC San Diego Health, joining the faculty at UCSD in 2021. She holds the Samuel SC Yen Endowed Chair at UCSD and is a Professor with Tenure. She is board certified in both Obstetrics & Gynecology and Maternal-Fetal Medicine and focuses her career on obstetric complications with a primary focus on preterm birth prevention. Dr. Gyamfi is a proficient, NIH funded researcher whose research has focused on preterm birth prediction and prevention and in interventions to improve outcomes for those delivering preterm, namely antenatal corticosteroids. Results of her randomized clinical trial on antenatal corticosteroids in women at risk for late preterm birth were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and changed obstetric practice in the United States. She also conducts research in the areas of preeclampsia, infectious disease, maternal morbidity and health disparities with over 200 peer-reviewed publications.

She is currently the Steering Committee Chair of a multi-center NIHLBI ENRICH study focused on improving maternal and childhood outcomes for pregnant individuals from poorly resources backgrounds, and Steering Committee Chair for the Preventing pre- eclampsia: Evaluating AspiRin Low-dose regimens following risk Screening (PEARLS study), assessing aspirin dosing in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, she was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a national medical honor society. Finally, she serves on the NICHD Council.

Aside from her clinical and research endeavors, Dr. Gyamfi is the Immediate Past President for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), the national and international society representing all perinatologists after completing her President in February, 2025. She is actively involved in writing clinical guidelines
in obstetrics for both SMFM and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and continues to mentor trainees and junior faculty from around the world.

https://providers.ucsd.edu/details/1568494250/obstetrics-gynecology

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X), Bluesky or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie. 

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Welcome to the second episode of season five, in conversation with Dr Fionnuala Mone. 

Fionnuala is a clinical academic in maternal fetal medicine based at Queen's University Belfast. She is dual qualified in genomics and fetal medicine and is an international expert in prenatal genomics acting as the genetics editor for Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as an invited member of the RCOG Genomic Standing Committee, Academic Board and Scientific Advisory Group. She is also secretary for the Fetal Genomics Group of the BSGM and scientific representative for BMFMS. She has over 60 publications in her field and contributes to international guidance related to prenatal genomics.

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X) or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to the first episode of season five of Conversations in Fetal Medicine, in conversation with Dr Elspeth Whitby

Dr Whitby is a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield and an Honorary consultant at Sheffield teaching hospitals NHS trust. Her areas of interest are based around obstetric imaging with MRI including the fetus, the placenta and post mortem imaging. She runs a national service for fetal imaging for all body areas and for assessing for placental invasion.
Despite having an academic post her work has been driven by local need and
requests from the clinicians and is heavily clinically based. She is also part of the team that have established the world’s first clinical service for imaging the post mortem fetus and neonate based on the teams work.
In addition she works as part of a sociology team looking at the impact of MRI as
a technology on patient care in the clinical setting both for in utero and post
mortem imaging. The aim of this collaboration is to understand the landscape in
which she works and how that integrates with society. This has altered her
clinical practice in many ways, hopefully for the better.
Her service is streamlined and designed so appointments are available at short
notice but no appointment slots are unfilled. She tries to develop a ‘lean service’
model within the current working environment.
Outside work she prioritises the family but find time for doing traditional and
new crafts, running around the peak district with friends, aiming for brunch or
coffee and cake at the end of the run, and time in the garden, the greenhouse
acting as her sanctuary.

https://www.fetalmri.co.uk/

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smph/people/clinical-medicine/elspeth-whitby

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X) or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.

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Welcome to a special bonus episode! Recorded live at the RCOG Annual Academic Meeting in January 2024, organised by the Blair Bell Research Society. Join us in conversation with Professor Lucilla Poston, co-hosted with the fabulous Dr Neil Ryan (a clinical academic and subspecialty trainee in gynae-oncology).

This is also a chance to celebrate the RCOG Annual Academic Meeting and learn a bit more about the Blair Bell Research Society. With thanks to the RCOG and BBRS for permission to share the recording. 

Professor Poston's bio:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/lucilla-poston

Professor Lucilla Poston CBE is a Professor of Maternal & Fetal Health in the School of Life Course & Population Sciences. Her research spans maternal nutrition, obesity and gestational diabetes with a focus on the short as well as longer term consequences for the health of mother and the child. Approaches include studies in mother -child cohorts and development of pragmatic interventions in pregnancy to improve pregnancy outcome and child health. Her team also interrogate the early life origins of disease through maternal and child electronic health record data linkages.

Professor Poston is President of the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) and was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009. She was appointed NIHR Senior Investigator, Emeritus in 2017, having succeeded twice in open competition. In 2017, Lucilla was awarded a CBE for services to Women’s Health. In 2024 Lucilla was listed by Research.com as being one of the top 1000 female scientists in the world, according to the H Index.

Previously Professor Poston was the Tommy's Chair of Maternal & Fetal Health and the Director of the Tommy’s Maternal & Fetal Research Unit based at St Thomas’ Hospital, and the Head of the School of Life Course & Population Sciences.

RCOG Annual Academic Meeting info:

The RCOG Annual Academic meeting ‘Save the date’ and call for abstracts has just been announced! 6-7 Feb 2025

https://rcog.eventsair.com/annual-academic-meeting-feb-2025

Dr Neil Ryan's bio:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/neilryan

Neil is the RCOG Subspecialty Trainee in Gynaecology Oncology at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and a CSO/NES Clinical Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

He was awarded a personal MRC fellowship to undertake a PhD at the University of Manchester (UoM) which he completed in 2020. His thesis was supervised by Professors Crosbie and Evans.

His PhD led to a change in NICE guidelines relating to the testing of womb cancer along with numerous publications, presentations, invited lectures and awards.

Neil's work was recognised by a President's Doctorial Scholarship and awarded the UoM's highest postgraduate award: The President's Medal. Neil was recently awarded the William Blair Bell Lecture by the RCOG.

British Gynaecological Cancer Society (BGCS) podcast info:

https://www.bgcs.org.uk/professionals/new-podcast-series/

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X) or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.