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  • Professor Soo Downe

    Professor Soo Downe Professor Soo Downe, BA(hons), RM, MSc, PhD. MBE.

    Soo spent 15 years working as a midwife in various clinical, research, and project development roles at Derby City General Hospital. From January 2001 Soo has worked at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in England, where she is now the Professor of Midwifery Studies. She set up the UCLan Midwifery Studies Research Unit in October 2002. She now leads the Research in Childbirth and Health (ReaCH) group.

    She currently chairs the UK Royal College of Midwives Campaign for Normal Birth steering committee, and she co-chairs the ICM Research Standing Committee. She has been a member of a number of national midwifery committees, and she recently chaired the joint Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists/National Patient Safety Agency subcommittee on the nature of evidence for maternity care.
    She is a member of the UK Medical Research Council College of Experts, and has held a number of visiting professorships, most recently in Belgium, Hong Kong, and Sweden.    

    Her main research focus is the nature of, and culture around, normal birth. She is the editor of Normal Birth, Evidence and Debate (2004, 2008), and the founder of the International Normal Birth Research conference series.

    As well as running a number of locally funded projects, she is currently the principle investigator on two large funded studies, the SHIP trial of the use of self-hypnosis in labour (funded by  the NHS RfPB) and an EU COST Action on childbirth contexts, cultures and consequences.   
     

  • Dr. Mechthild M. Gross

    Dr. Mechthild M. Gross I am a trained nurse midwife and obtained a Masters degree in Psychology from the University of Constance. After my PhD in 2000 (Bremen University), I joined the Hanover Medical School, in Hanover Germany, as a research fellow and a consultant midwife.

    Since then, I have been setting up a Midwifery Research and Education Unit and have published widely in the area of midwifery. I also have a long-standing interest in the academic training of midwives. Following an ICM workshop on midwifery research in Tuebingen, Germany in 1989, I founded and have chaired the annual research conferences for German speaking midwives for 18 years.

    Currently I still work as a practising midwife in a tertiary hospital, devoting half of my time to research. Additionally, I am involved in teaching medical students, and preparing for midwife led models of care. Since September 2009, I am the Head of the European Masters of Science in Midwifery at the Hanover Medical School. In 2010, my postdoctoral thesis (Venia legendi) was accepted by the Hanover Medical School.

  • Professor Ngai Fen Cheung

    Ngai Fen Cheung Ngai Fen Cheung (PhD, MSc, RM, RGN) is the professor and the head of the first Chinese Midwifery Research Unit of the Nursing College of Hangzhou Normal University in China.


    She teaches research methodology to nursing and midwifery postgraduates at Hangzhou Normal University. She is the first author of the groundbreaking bilingual research book, The Development of Chinese midwifery and the Modernisation of Childbirth, and particularly interested in the area of childbearing women’s wellbeing, theorising normality of childbirth as an approach to develop midwifery and midwifery education in higher education in China. In the COST project she focuses her study on the childbirth experience of Chinese migrants and the work surrounding ESR activities. Her research aims to document and to explain the practices of midwifery both in China and abroad, promoting normal birth and modern maternity care in China.

  • Professor Marie Berg

    Professor Marie Berg Marie Berg PhD, MNSc, MPH, RN, RM, is Professor in Health and Care Sciences specializing in reproductive and perinatal health at the institute of Health and Care Sciences, the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is head of the midwifery program and master modules in Midwifery Science and is teaching on basic, advanced and research levels.

    Marie has been working as a midwife in various clinical, project development and research roles at Sahlgrenska university hospital, at Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg where she now is Professor, and in Dem. Rep of Congo.  

    Her research aims at supporting well-being in mothers, fathers, families in the childbearing period (pregnancy, childbirth, early motherhood/infancy) through person-centered care. Central theoretical standpoints for her research are the lifeworld theory and salutogenesis. Her main research is divided in two programmes, these include: 1) Support in Childbirth including management of the labour progress, theory development of intrapartum midwifery care and transition to a trustful parenthood; 2) Motherhood and diabetes (MODIAB) with focus on balancing diabetes with the challenges during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding period.

    On an International level Marie as part of the COST Action ISO907 for optimal maternity care in Europe, she leads Core group 4: Techniques for identifying the best in complex systems. Marie is also a leader representing Sweden in The interdisciplinary research network CHuCE, concerning qualitative research on childbearing in Nordic and other European countries Europe. Marie is engaged in developing formal midwifery education in central Africa, specifically Democratic Republic of Congo.

     

     

  • Maria Johanna Christina

    Maria Johanna Christina PhD in social and cultural sciences at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (NL).
    Present position: Associate professor with habilitation at the Department of Sociology of the Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã (PT).
    schouten@sapo.pt

    I have lived and worked in the Netherlands, Indonesia and Portugal, as an academic in the areas of anthropology, history and sociology. My research and teaching activities on the topics of gender, family and health, as well as a personal interest, entailed some modest studies which may be developed further in the framework of the COST action. This research includes: the diversity in beliefs, norms and practices of childbirth and maternity care; the differences between European countries regarding medicalization; and sociological aspects of the transition to parenthood
     

  • Professor Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen

    Professor Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen Professor Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen (PhD, Lic Health Sci, MSc ; nursing, health admin. and leadership), RN,RM.
    Current position: Professor (1995), Nursing Science, University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Science, Kuopio, Director of Nursing (part-time), Kuopio University Hospital, Finland , 1995- Docent, University of Turku, Faculty of Medicine, Finland, 1992.

    Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen is a researcher in maternity care and health services with focus on nursing and midwifery. Her maternity services research program has its roots in the 1980’s. During 1990’s studies of councelling models of mothers, fathers and families were studied with some international comparisons by the PI funded by the Academy of Finland.

    Several research methods have been used in the study such as observations, interviews, questionnaires, instruments, registers and analyzed by grounded theory, phenomenology, statistical methods as well as action research. International and national publications as well as dissertations have been produced of the study.

    She has supervised over 30 PhDs and has ongoing collaboration with researchers from  Europe, USA and Singapore. She has held several positions in research and higher education bodies in Finland (Academy of Finland, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health).
     

  • Professor Elisabeth Severinsson

    ELISABETH SEVERINSSON  Elisabeth Severinsson is a Professor and Director of the Research Institute for Women’s, Family and Child Health, at the Vestfold University College in Norway.


    Professor Severinsson’s research interests include childbearing and postnatal women’s mental health and ethics in clinical supervision. She has headed the research group in Women’s Mental Health since 2002. Other specific international research interests are: research management, research and policy, mental health, public health, supervision in professional practice and education and methodological interesting research problems. She is the author of more than 150 scientific articles, reports and book chapters, and of several books. Professor Elisabeth Severinsson is engaged in international research collaboration.

  • Anshi Pan

    Anshi Pan Anshi Pan (PhD, MSc, MPhil) is a researcher in social anthropology and other subjects in social sciences. He is now a specially-appointed professor by the School of Nursing, Hangzhou Normal University, China, teaching and doing research in the Midwifery and Childbirth Research Unit there.

    His interests include childbirth and maternity care from social and cultural perspectives, the sociology, anthropology and history of and in nursing, maternity care, and medicine. His previous works include researches into the cultures in southwest China. Recent works are involved in the international campaign and research in normal childbirth, developing research in normal childbirth from cultural and cross-cultural perspectives.

    He is the first author of 'The challenge of promoting normality and midwifery in China'.

  • Olga Gouni

    Olga Gouni Prebirth Psychotherapist, prebirth psychology trainer, director of the Prebirth Psychology Center cosmoanelixis, president of the Hellenic Union for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine, board Member of the International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM)
    El Alamein 20, 142 31 Nea Ionia, Athens, Greece, www.cosmoanelixis.gr, e-mail: info@cosmoanelixis.gr
    Tel./ fax 0030 210 2720015, mob. + 6983 193 300

    Studies

    • Law School of Athens
    • Sociology lessons “Open University”
    • Prebirth Psychology training

    Professional Experience
    • 1974-1993: Teaching career / owner of two private schools in Athens
    • 1997- today: Official Representative of Whole-self Discovery & Development Institute, Netherlands
    • 2000-today : Owner and director of “Prebirth Psychology Center COSMOANELIXIS”, in Athens
    • 2001-today: Municipality of PHILI as psychotherapist working with kids, adults
    • 2004-today: President of the Hellenic Union for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine
    • 2004: Trainer with the Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Department of Experimental Pedagogy. Presented a 2-year vocational training course in Prebirth Psychology
    • 2004- today: Board Member of the International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine
    • 2004-today: Chairperson of the Special Education Committee in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM)
    • 2004- today: Prebirth Psychology Trainer in Italy, Serbia, Greece and Cyprus.
    • 2004-today: Presenter in a number of congresses all over Europe
    • 2008: Publication of the book “MERES PSIHIS” (SOUL DAYS)
    • 2009: Publication of the book Kalosorises (WELCOME)
    • 2010 –today: Representative of Greece, in the international research team COST Action, on optimum materniny care.
    • 2011: establishment of the non government non profit organization “Tierra y Cielo, Centro de desarrollo Integral, A.C.), San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

    Titles of congress presentations published in the journals as well

     • Prebirth Psychology in Action: Presentation at the 16th International Congress ISPPM, 2005, “The Anthropology & Psychology of Pregnancy & Birth” Heidelberg , Germany
    • How we and the world turn a blind eye! It is time to welcome our children! (Moscow congress, 2007)
    • From the Heart to the Ear: Presentation at the Second European Congress of Early Prevention in Children with Verbal Communication Disorders, 26-28 September, 2008 Sofia, Bulgaria Organized by: The NBU (New Bulgarian University) Sofia, Bulgaria, The IEPSP (Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology, Belgrade, Serbia) The P.A.L.O. (The Hellenic Organization of Hearing, Speech Therapy & Communication Disorders, Patra, Greece
    • It is Never too Late! Now is the Moment! Presentation at the XVIIIth International ISPPM Congress: Prevention- Early Dialogue, 2008, Heidelberg, Germany.
    • Prenatal and Perinatal Experience and Autonomy: Presentation at the Greek-Cypriot Congress for Children with Disabilities, 2007, THEOTOKOS, Athens, Greece
    • Prenatal Cont®acts for a Lifetime: Presentation at the Parma congress, 2008…
     

     

     

  • Professor Ans Luyben

    Professor Ans Luyben  Ans Luyben (PhD PGDE PGDM RM) is a professor and head of the Midwifery Research, Development and Consultancy Unit at the Health Section, Bern University of Applied Sciences (BUAS), Switzerland.

    Ans was educated as a midwife and teacher in the Netherlands, after which she worked in several institutions in the Netherlands and Switzerland. She carried out several small research projects and published in a variety of German, Dutch and English professional journals and books (www.gesundheit.bfh.ch/lba1). Her doctoral study, conducted at the Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, addressed clients’ views on maternity care in Scotland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.


    Ans Luyben was involved in an EU-funded project of establishing the European Master of Science in Midwifery and is a Co-Chair of the Education Standing Committee of the International Confederation of Midwives. Her current research interests are women’s and family health, with an emphasis on client-centred care, experiences and outcome, health care education and cross-national comparative studies.

  • Dr. Lucy Firth

    Lucy Firth Lucy is a bioethicist and social scientist, with an expertise in qualitative methods and ethical aspects of public and social policy. My research focuses on the social context of ethical and health-care decision-making and uses multi-disciplinary approaches to address complex social and clinical problems. I have a particular interest in women's health, pregnancy and childbirth (and infertility); the use of evidence in medical practice and health technology assessment; and socio-ethical aspects of health care organisations.

  • Professor Cecily Begley

    Professor Cecily Begley  Prof. Cecily Begley, RGN, RM, RNT, FFNMRCSI, Dip NEd, PGDipStats., MSc, MA, PhD, FTCD

    Following four years in general nursing, Cecily spent 12 years working in clinical, teaching and research posts In
    midwifery. She moved to third level education in 1989 and lectured in the Royal College of Surgeons for 8 years. In
    1996, she took up the post of first Director of the newly-opened School of Nursing and Midwifery in Trinity College
    Dublin, Ireland. Since 2004, she has held the post of Chair of Nursing and Midwifery, and now leads the maternity care research team, in Trinity College.

    Cecily has a 27-year history of research activity and has led many research teams to successful completion of diverse projects, including supervision of 18 PhD students to completion. She has been successful in obtaining over 3m euro in research funding in the last six years, as PI, and holds/has held a total of 18 grants from the Health Research Board (HRB), HSE Western Area, HSE North-Eastern Area, the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery in Ireland (NCNM) and the National Disability Authority. She has published over 90 peer-reviewed research papers, 5 book chapters and 1 edited book. She is a member of national and international research review committees, and has editorial and/or reviewing commitments for 5 medical, nursing, or midwifery journals.

    Her main research areas are: normal birth, midwifery-led care and expectant management of the third stage of labour. She is at present co-ordinating (with Prof. Mike Clarke and Deirdre Daly) the MAMMI study (Maternal health And Maternal Morbidity in Ireland) and is leading a team of COST members in a funding bid for an FP7 Health call in the area of women-centred care.

  • Kleopatra Alamantariotou

    Kleopatra Alamantariotou  Kleopatra Alamantariotou is currently studying for a PhD in innovation science and innovation management through European Universities in order to gain an expertise as innovation agent. For the past two years she has been working in quality and improvement Department with collaboration with universities Hospitals in Greece Europe and Department of Healths. She is an external researcher of University of Peloponnese in Greece and UK universities.

    She is also a member of EU COST action on Childbirth contexts, cultures and consequences and other various projects like centre for innovation in Health management Leeds (Enhancing the role of medicine in the management of European Health systems).

    She has worked as a health policy and guidelines producer in American Hospital Dubai UAE during 2008 and 2009, worked in the United Kingdom, as a midwife and researcher in strategic management in IT IM in Chelsea Westminister Hospital London for 2,5 years(2005-2007).
    In 2007, she received her Msc, in midwifery from the Department of Health Science, Middlesex University London, and in 2008 she received her second master Msc. In Health Informatics City University London England.

    Kleopatra Alamantariotou obtain her degree in Midwifery (Bsc) from Technological university of Athens in 2004. She wrote books chapters and articles in quality of health information on the internet.
    She join memebership of Higher education Academy in United Kingdom, and Greece Membership in immunology Cambridge University UKCHIP membership(UK council for health informatics professions) and also in globals forum of health in World Health Organization and Knowledge transfer.
    Her Research interests include health informatics, e-Health , e-learning, virtual communities, innovation science and entrepreneur, innovation in health social innovation technology knowledge transfer, midwifery normal birth and global health

  • Dr. Ingela Lundgren

    Ingela Lundgren Ingela Lundgren, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (RN, RM, MPH, MNSc, PhD)

    Ingela Lundgren completed her education as a midwife in 1986 and since then she has worked with childbirths, both in standard delivery wards, Birth Centre Care and homebirths. In 2002, she defended her thesis about women’s childbirth experiences (Releasing and relieving encounters – experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden).

    Her main research interest is about the meaning of childbirth in a woman’s life. Ingela Lundgren is currently involved in several national and international research projects focusing on women's experiences of giving birth near birth and in a long-term perspective, support during childbirth by professionals and non-professionals and the organization of maternity care.

    She is also a supervisor for several doctoral students, both nationally and internationally. Ingela is one of the leaders of a Nordic research network concerning childbirth and qualitative research funded by Nordforsk (an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers that provides funding for Nordic research cooperation as well as advice and input on Nordic research policy http://www.nordforsk.org/en). 
     

  • Professor Marlene Sinclair

    Professor Marlene Sinclair PhD MEd Post Graduate Diploma in Education BSc RNT RM RN
    Specialist certificate in Neuromedicine/Neurosurgery
    Current employment: Chair in Midwifery Research at the University of Ulster (2007)

    Marlene has over twenty years of experience in higher education and is Ireland’s first professor of midwifery research. She received a personal chair from the University of Ulster in 2007.

    Her ambition is to develop clinical midwifery researchers’ at doctoral and post doctoral level; to build research leadership and capacity of midwives, locally, nationally and internationally. To date, she has successfully supervised 12 PhD students and proudly holds an honorary contract with the Ulster Maternity Unit. Her specialist area of research is birth technology and her PhD completed in 1999 was titled: “Midwives Readiness to Use High Technology in the Labour Ward: Implications for Education and Training. In 2007, she established the world’s first research society for midwives: The Doctoral Midwifery Research Society http://www.doctoralmidwiferysociety.org/ (DMRS funded by the NI R&D Office)

    Marlene is currently the founder and editor of RCM Evidence Based Midwifery. She was elected as a member of RCM Council in 2005, re-elected in 2009 and is an active member of the RCM Education and Research Committee and the RCM Steering Group for Normal Birth. She has recently been appointed to the RCOG Wellbeing Research Committee and the new Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) panel. Marlene has served on many major university committees including: Senate, Research and Innovation, Ethics, and the Institute of Nursing Research.

     

  • Professor Declan Devane

    Professor Declan Devane  Professor Declan Devane PhD, MSc, PgDip(Stats), BSc, DipHE, RGN, RM, RNT

    Professor Declan Devane is Chair of Midwifery at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway. Declan qualified in nursing in Galway, Ireland and as a midwife in Bristol and Gloucestershire (UK) where he subsequently worked before returning to Ireland to work as a midwife in Dublin.

    Declan is fascinated by many areas of maternity care but has a particular interest in the implementation and evaluation of models of maternity care and on methods of fetal monitoring including cardiotocography and intermittent auscultation. He is a member of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Expert Network of Research Advisors; a member of the Midwifery Committee of An Bord Altranais (National Nursing and Midwifery regulatory board for Ireland), an Honorary Visiting Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre, a member of the UK Cochrane Centre Systematic Review training team and a member of the Editorial Board or Advisory Panel of a number of international peer review journals in the area of maternity care and women’s health.

    Declan’s methodological areas of expertise are randomised trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. One example of his trial work is his PhD research, which was the first randomised trial to evaluate a model of maternity care in the Republic of Ireland. Declan is involved in a number of Cochrane systematic reviews including reviews on midwife-led care, antepartum cardiotocography, the admission cardiotocography, continuous cardiotocography during labour, the biophysical profile and the third stage of labour. He has also conducted work for the Royal College of Midwives (UK) on the socioeconomic role of the midwife. This work provides a robust assessment of the evidence for the clinical and socio-economic effectiveness of midwife-led models of care.

  • Priv. Doz. Dr. Susanne Perkhofer

    Susanne Perkhofer Susanne Perkhofer (Msc., Dr., Priv. Doz) is Scientific Director at the University of Applied Sciences Tyrol, Austria. In 1996 she finished her education as a biomedical analyser and started to study microbiology. In 2002 she finished der master of science in microbiology and started her PhD at the division of hygiene and medical microbiology at Medical University Innsbruck (MUI). From 2002 until 2006 she did her dissertation which she passed with distinction. Since 2006 she has been working as a post-doc at the division of hygiene and medical microbiology. In 2009 she had a research stay at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, Unitè de Aspergillus. In 2011 she did her postdoctoral thesis (Venia docendi) at the MUI for Experimental Hygiene and Medical Microbiology.
    Her main research area in the field of microbiology is mycology. Within this topic she focuses on the interaction of microorganisms with immune cells of the host. She has more than 26 international publications and wrote several books articles. Susanne got three prizes for her scientific works of which two were international ones. She has supervised a large number of bachelor-, master- and PhD- students and is active collaborator with national and international researchers.
    Susanne is actively participating at national and international congresses and reviewer for more than six international peer reviewed journals. She is active member of the research and development committee of Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences. She is also an active member of the research committee for scientific and ethical questions at the private university UMIT in Hall Tyrol, Austria.

  • Marika Podda Connor

    Marika Podda Connor Marika leads the Migrant Health Unit within the Primary Health Department in Malta. In 2007 she was awarded a Masters Degree in Transcultural Health from the Middlesex University in London.

    Her thesis explored the ‘Biopsychsocial Impact of Migration’. Marika developed a training programme for Cultural Mediators in Health Care which was followed by the recruitment of cultural mediators /interpreters within the Primary Health Department in Malta. Her role within the unit includes health education to migrants and has held focus groups with migrant women on the topic of Female Genital Mutilation / Circumcision (FGM/C) and Child Spacing. She has also written reports on in-service studies carried out within the Migrant Health Unit.

    Marika is the President of the European Transcultural Nursing Association (ETNA) which aims to promote cultural competence among health professionals. Between 2007 and 2011 she was a Management Committee Member within the COSTHOME Action ISO603; Health and Social Care for Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Europe (HOME).