Centre for Midwifery & Women's Health

We have a long and successful history of providing midwifery education programmes. The midwifery teaching team is a cohesive group of highly motivated teachers who are passionate about midwifery. The team has a range of clinical experience and expertise ranging from normal childbirth to those women with complex social, obstetric and medical needs; breast feeding, care of the newborn in challenging situations, student caseload holding as well as independent and NHS practice. We believe that women are at the centre of their midwifery care, and as such this approach underpins our core philosophy. The key tenets of our undergraduate midwifery programme are underpinned by the ‘6Cs’ relating to care, compassions, competence, communication, courage and competence. As a team we aim to provide challenging and stimulating learning that creates the passion for lifelong learning.

The BSc Midwifery course is validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), meeting their newest curriculum requirements for midwifery education.

This course is also accredited by Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative with the Gold Award for achieving the Baby-Friendly sustainability standards. This demonstrates how the midwifery team at Bournemouth University have committed to long term implementation, maintenance and progression of the Baby-Friendly Standards.

One of the first, three year direct entry (pre-registration) midwifery programmes in the UK was approved by the English National Board in 1990 as part of a portfolio of programmes offered by the Dorset and Salisbury College of Midwifery and Nursing (DASCOMAN). Prior to this, training to be a midwife was generally only available for people who were already registered nurses.

In 1992, when Bournemouth Polytechnic became a university, DASCOMAN fully joined the university, which enabled a suite of pre-registration midwifery programmes to be offered at Advanced Diploma and Honours Degree level. Students gained their clinical experience across Dorset and Wiltshire.

In 1996, through a competitive process, Bournemouth University was awarded lead provider status for midwifery education across Wessex under the NHS Executive Educational Contract. This extended the clinical footprint for students from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to South Somerset.

Midwifery education has continued to grow and innovate over the years. Following a successful pilot project in 1996, student caseload practice was fully integrated into the undergraduate programme, before it became national policy. One of very few Ventouse practitioner programmes was pioneered, offering a practical solution for remote birth centres, where transferring to a consultant-led unit was challenging. In 2011 the undergraduate programme was one of the earliest in the UK to achieve UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation.

Past, present and future midwives

Numerous midwifery students, qualified midwives and members of staff have passed through Bournemouth University. Click here to find out more. 

Staff at the centre have introduced a number of innovative practice developments:

• Joint midwifery and chiropractic infant feeding clinic: Newborn infant feeding clinic
• Student Midwives Integrated Learning Environment 

Now accepting research students in the Centre for Midwifery and Women's Health 

A Master’s by Research (MRes) is a great introduction to the research process, enabling the student to explore a specific area under the supervision of experienced researchers. It contains little or no formal taught component. This type of study gives you the chance to explore a research topic over a shorter time than a more in-depth PhD. Students can undertake a one year full-time or two years part-time Master’s degree. Find out more about our MRes programme. 

CMWH is currently accepting MRes (and PhD) applications in the following areas:

• Early/latent phase labour (Professor Vanora Hundley)
• Infant feeding (Associate Professor Catherine Angell)
• Pain management, pain education, musculoskeletal and pelvic pain, pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, women’s health (Professor Carol Clark)
• Women’s health in a changing global climate (Dr Becky Neal)
• Care for women and babies in low and middle income countries (Professor Edwin van Teijlingen)
• Cardiometabolic health during pre-conception and pregnancy (Dr Sumanto Haldar)
• Exercise and pregnancy (Dr Malika Felton)
• Chronic musculoskeletal pain, lifestyle factors, human metabolism, and the use of data science in the pain field (Dr Omer Elma)
• Women's alcohol consumption and nutritional status (Dr Chloe Casey)
• Nutrition in women's health (including LGBT+ populations) (Dr Sarah Hillier)

CMWH has a large number of doctoral students working on topics as diverse as the weaning age in post-medieval populations, women’s experiences of care, and antenatal care in rural Nepal. We have also developed a clinical academic doctorate studentship in association with our practice partners, download this flyer for more information (pdf 391kb).

Our students have been highlighted in the NIHR Clinical Research Network Magazine 'VISION'.

Iro Arvanitidou - Informing the development of a nutrition intervention for couples in the preconception period to promote healthy nutrition and healthy body weight.

Vanessa Bartholomew - Pain in early labour; developing support for women in the latent phase of labour.

Louise Barton - A comparative study of a midwife-led, integrated smoke free pregnancy pathway with standard care

Charlotte Clayton - Maternity Care Model on Birth Outcomes & Postnatal Care Experience of Mothers & Babies On Low Income

Jessica Doherty – What strategies would early career midwives find of benefit in order to develop, grow and maintain their resilience in the workplace?

Rosie Harper - Examining the use of digital 'nudges' to motivate postpartum women to do pelvic floor muscle training

Joanne Rack - Personalised care for women of advanced maternal age.

Catherine Rattley - Metabolic responses to exercise in women throughout the lifecycle.

Laura Stedman - Does An Induction Of Labour At Term Affect The Incidence Of Respiratory Distress Syndrome Of The Newborn For Women Diagnosed With Gestational Diabetes: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Sara Stride - A study to identify midwives' perineal practice at the time of birth across the United Kingdom.

Rebecca Edwards - Can an educational web intervention, co-created by service users, affect multiparous women's experiences of early labour? (A randomised control trial). The Let's Talk Early Labour (L-TEL) trial

Karim Khaled - The association between stress and diet quality among women of reproductive age in three countries: UK, USA, and Lebanon

Alice Ladur - Assessing the contribution of male spousal involvement in promoting safe motherhood.

Anna Marsh - Bridging the gap? An exploration of Midwives' and Womens' use of Instagram

Amy Miller - Mother-baby feeding outcomes and student experience of an interprofessional student-led breastfeeding clinic: A mixed methods study. 

Dominique Mylod - Can pelvic positioning in early labour reduce early admission and obstetric intervention?

Malika Felton - Acute and chronic effects of slow paced breathing in women with pregnancy-induced hypertension

Hazel Tennant - Exploring UNICEF UK Baby Friendly implementation in a maternity unit.

• Pain in Childbirth: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Latent phase labour has been identified as a challenging time for women and midwives. A key question is how best to support women during this period without increasing their risk of unnecessary interventions; managing labour pain is an important aspect.

In this seminar we suggest that midwives draw lessons from the field of musculoskeletal conditions, where it is well-acknowledged that there are multiple factors that contribute to constructing perceptions of pain. Since a woman’s previous pain experiences may contribute to perceptions of labour pain, we propose that midwives have an early discussion with women about their pain history. https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38629/
 

Listen to the BU Women's Health podcast series to find out more about the CMWH and its work and research. Episodes are released weekly - follow the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify or iTunes to learn more about women’s health and developments in the field to support women in Dorset and beyond.