The School of Health & Social Care

Midwifery research takes centre stage at global congress

Page published 21 June 2011

Afghan children - photo copyright Rachel Arnold

BU staff to present at international midwifery congress.

This week three Bournemouth University staff are presenting at the main international midwifery conference held every three years. This year the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) conference is held in Durban, South Africa.

The three presentations reflect the range of research currently conducted in the School of Health and Social Care. PhD student, Rachel Arnold, will speak about her research based in Afghanistan. Her PhD addresses perspectives of care amongst Afghan maternity health care providers. Rachel commented that: “About 1,575 women die per 100,000 live births, to put this into perspective in the UK this maternal mortality ratio is about 8 per 100,000! In total some 25,000 Afghan women die every year in pregnancy or during birth.” The photo above, taken by Rachel, shows Afghan children in a mountain village in Badakhshan, the area with the highest ever globally recorded maternal-mortality ratio.

The second BU paper is presented by senior lecturer in midwifery Alison Taylor, who will speak about her PhD research. Alison’s study asks breastfeeding mothers to keep personal video accounts about their baby’s life until feeding is established including a daily video diary about their feelings, and experiences.

Alison noted that: “This is the first study of its kind, where video-recording is used as a research tool to study women’s experiences of breastfeeding in the context of their everyday lives during the early weeks, in their own home as it is actually happening.” Alison will be discussing the values of using audio-visual data in her research and approaches to its analysis.

Professor Emeritus Jo Alexander, one of Alison’s PhD supervisors, commented: ‘Bournemouth University has a long held reputation for high quality research into breastfeeding. Alison’s project adds a new dimension with her innovative use of video-recording as a research tool.’

The third BU speaker in South Africa is Professor van Teijlingen, who is presenting a piece of research jointly produced with the University of Aberdeen. His paper ‘Midwife-led smoking cessation services for pregnant women: A good idea?’ challenges some of the current ideas around the role of the midwife in the wider public health. The research is based on an evaluation of a smoking cessation intervention in the Northeast of Scotland. One of his Aberdeen-based collaborating researchers, Dr. Flora Douglas, remarked: “This project is the latest in a series of joint research projects between the University of Aberdeen and Bournemouth University. Both universities are benefitting from this cross-country collaboration.”

The ICM conference is underway in Durban South Africa until 23 June. The tri-annual conference attracts practising midwives and midwifery researchers from all over the world.