The Maternity & Midwifery Hour

Maternity and Midwifery Hour

Series 19 - Episode 8: " No pregnant woman sent home" is this a demand to build trust with women that they will be listened to or does it go too far?

The "No Pregnant Woman Sent Home" campaign has sparked significant debate across maternity services, professional communities, and among women and families themselves.

At its heart is a simple but challenging question: when a pregnant woman seeks care, should maternity services always provide face-to-face assessment rather than advising her to remain at home?

Supporters argue that every contact represents an opportunity to identify concerns, build trust, and potentially prevent avoidable harm. Critics raise questions about clinical judgement, resource pressures, over-medicalisation, and whether a blanket approach is always in women's best interests.

This live webinar brings together leading voices from maternity care to explore the evidence, experiences, and practical implications behind the campaign. The discussion will examine how services can balance safety, choice, personalised care, and professional decision-making while responding to increasing demand and workforce pressures.

Join us for a thoughtful and balanced conversation on one of the most important debates currently facing maternity services.

Hear about the online poll for maternity opinion on a new slogan to rebuild trust with women and cast your vote live.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Neil Stewart, Editorial Director, MATFLIX/ Maternity & Midwifery Forum

Series 19 - Episode 7: Midwifery research: priorities, pathways and midwifery involvement

At the heart of this week’s hour is the importance of research that informs midwifery practice and the care of women, babies and families, together with the role of midwives in conducting and advancing that research.

We are joined by Judith Field, who will be discussing the RCM’s groundbreaking work in identifying midwifery research priorities and future directions for this work.

Claire Singh will be discussing her PhD project - INCLUSIVE: Improving knowledge, skills, attitudes & behaviours for LGBTQ+ maternity care - which aims to improve the maternity care experience of LGBTQ+ birthing people by helping midwives develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours they need to offer safe and inclusive care. The INCLUSIVE project is driven by both a personal and professional commitment to improve equity, inclusion and care experiences within maternity services and Claire will talk about the INCLUSIVE project and work being undertaken as part of the project, as well as how you may be able to get involved.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Judith Field, Research Advisor, Royal College of Midwives

Claire Singh, NIHR Senior Doctoral Fellow, King’s College London

Series 19 - Episode 6: Postpartum Psychosis: identification, support and care

In this hour we explore Postpartum Psychosis also known as Puerperal Psychosis, an important condition which can impact on women and their families after the birth of a baby. Sally Wilson and Jenny Stevenson will share what is known about Postpartum psychosis, and its recognition, and how families can be supported through this, and we will explore women and families experiences and some of issues faced by those who experience postpartum psychosis

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Dr Sally Wilson, National Training Coordinator, Action on Postpartum Psychosis

Jenny Stevenson - National Peer Support Coordinator (online services)

Recently there has been a lot of media focus on trauma and difficulties experienced by women after birth, and in a busy service women may also feel anxious and reluctant to ask questions about their labour and birth experiences.

Marie Watkyns, former Head of Midwifery and founder of Little Light Support, introduces the L.I.G.H.T. approach to trauma-informed birth debriefing. This session will offer practical insight into supporting emotionally complex postnatal conversations with clarity, compassion and confidence.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Marie Watkyns, Founder, Little Light Support

Biography

Marie Watkyns

After 5 years in the Royal Air Force, Marie trained as a midwife — graduating with a First-Class degree and receiving a Clinical Excellence Award.

She went on to build a senior career specialising in clinical governance and patient safety, including roles as a former Head of Midwifery.

Over the years, she has led and contributed to serious incident investigations, perinatal mortality reviews, and national audits of maternity care.

This work gave her a clear view of what happens behind the scenes when care doesn’t go to plan — and, importantly, how often families are left without clear, honest explanations afterwards.

Through independent birth debriefs and maternity care reviews, Marie offers something that is rarely available within the system:

Clear, evidence-based explanations of what happened

Honest answers without defensiveness or dismissal

An independent perspective

Series 19 - Episode 4: Improving care for women and infants

Presentations:

Parental stress in the Neonatal Unit - findings from the Neo-SILT Study

Colm Darby, Vice Chair, Neonatal Nurses Association; Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, Craigavon Area Hospital; Doctoral Fellow; Queen’s University Belfast

Reset & renew - building sustainable healthy habits in high-stress roles

Amanda Whitehead, Holistic Health and Nutrition Coach

Black and mixed Black heritage women in the UK experience pregnancy and infant loss at higher rates than their white counterparts. In response to these disparities, midwife Alicia Burnett launched Black Baby Loss Awareness Week in 2023 - an awareness event which aims to improve Black communities' awareness of support services for women, birthing people and families affected by pregnancy and baby loss.

Now in its fourth year, the awareness week now features an annual webinar, national community walks and in-person events. Join us when Alicia shares what’s in store for Black Baby Loss Awareness Week 2026.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Alicia Burnett, Director, Black Baby Loss Awareness C.I.C.

Series 19 - Episode 2: Fear of Childbirth or Fear of Systems?

The rising caesarean section rate and the pressures on the maternity services might contribute to women feeling afraid of childbirth. Fear of childbirth or birth trauma may be shaped by the way care is organised and delivered, by midwives and the multidisciplinary team, and experienced by women, their babies and families.

In this session, Dr Maeve O’Connell, Lecturer in Midwifery at University College Cork, draws on the Quality Maternal and Newborn Care Framework and links this to practice and education.

Maternity care and thus midwifery has become more complex for women and also for midwives and maternity care teams. How can we get it right, and improve care for women, their babies and families, reduce unnecessary interventions and, most importantly, improve maternal and perinatal outcomes?

In this week’s hour, we welcome Anna Melamed, Senior Midwifery Lecturer at University of the West of England, who will be sharing the Antenatal Risk Assessment and Classification (ARAC) Study and considering how this impacts on practice.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Anna Melamed, Senior midwifery lecturer, University of the West of England

Language truly matters when it comes to pregnancy loss. The language used in healthcare settings can have a huge impact on people who experience loss during pregnancy, and on their subsequent mental recovery and wellbeing.

In this session, we will explore what can be learned from the experiences of nearly one thousand participants who took part in research projects to investigate the way language is currently used and perceived in pregnancy loss care in the UK. This work gathered responses from people who have experienced loss at different stages of pregnancy, as well as from midwives and other professionals involved in delivering care in this difficult context.

We will reflect on the different language needs of individuals and identify communicative strategies that can best support them. We will also draw on statistical analysis of large scale survey data to identify the terminology that is felt to be most distressing or ‘unacceptable’ to a majority, and that which is more ‘acceptable’.

In this way, the session will provide some evidence-based recommendations for communication in practice and opportunities for reflection.

Hosted by:

Sue Macdonald

Contributions from:

Dr Beth Malory, Lecturer in English Linguistics and a health communicationspecialist, University College Londo

Dr Louise Nuttall, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University College London