Who Are We?
Dr Rebecca Moore
Make Birth Better Co-Founder & Training Lead
Dr Rebecca Moore is a perinatal psychiatrist working in London, with experience spanning over twenty years.
Her role incorporates working with and supporting women who have new onset or pre-existing emotional issues through pregnancy and up to a year after birth in the NHS and privately. This includes infertility, pregnancy loss, anxiety, depression, OCD and trauma.
She is passionate about her job and has developed a particular interest in birth trauma. Rebecca founded the Birth Trauma conference, running annually in London - and founded the Make Birth Better Network in early 2018.
Rebecca is also training to be an integrative practitioner and sees exercise, diet, movement and meditation and stress management as key parts of her treatment approach. She likes women to lead and own their care and works collaboratively with each woman to develop a bespoke plan for them.
Dr Emma Svanberg
Make Birth Better Co-Founder & Campaigns/Research Lead
I am a perinatal clinical psychologist working in private practice in North London, having worked previously in the NHS in primary care perinatal services. As well as working therapeutically with parents and parents-to-be, I run a number of free to attend groups in my local area. I'm a keen writer and campaigner, and use social media to raise awareness of common perinatal mental health concerns. I also trained as a hypnobirthing teacher and have recently become the Perinatal Mental Health Advisor for the Positive Birth Movement.
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I set up the first Make Birth Better campaign during Birth Trauma Awareness Week in 2017. I believe that birth can and should be a positive and empowering experience for women and their partners, and the staff who look after them should be properly supported to achieve this aim. I'm hopeful that, together with the members of the newly-formed Network, we will be able to bring about positive change. I make the changes to the website so if you see any errors or think we need to add something, please let me know!
Caroline Ingman
Make Birth Better Marketing Manager & lived experience contributor
​I suffered during and ever since the birth of my daughter, and sought out others who had similar experiences in order to help me feel less alone and provide a language for what I was feeling. Through Instagram I came across the wonderful people in this network and reading, writing and talking about my experience helped me heal. Having been elbowed out of my advertising job when I attempted to return after maternity leave, I wanted to channel my skills into something more meaningful. So here I am. I will be volunteering my time to help get the word out about this resource and the campaigns that will help to pave the way to a better birthing experience for women across the country.
Dr Jan Smith
Make Birth Better Northern Lead
I am a Chartered Psychologist. Since 2010, I have worked within independent practice providing psychological support to clients and their families, following catastrophic injuries, using predominantly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In 2014, I created a birth trauma service for women/men where they can access individual, couple, and group therapy to help them adjust to life following their birthing experiences. For a number of years, I have supported clients through their clinical negligence litigation case, and/or investigations with the Trust where their trauma occurred.
My PhD research investigated women’s decision-making during pregnancy, and the role of staff in this process. I also work closely with some maternity units helping them to increase their self-awareness when supporting women during birth, and the power of language at this time. More recently, we have begun addressing how to prevent birth trauma. I campaign to raise awareness of birth trauma, and ways we can work collaboratively to effectively prevent and treat this.
Nikki Wilson
Make Birth Better Strategy Lead
Nikki is the Founder of 10 of Zen. She left her job as CEO at the London-based charity Wings for Life UK to set up 10 of zen. Her commitment to a regular 10-minute daily meditation practice started when she became a mum in 2014, a transition she found very tough. Fondly known by her family as her ‘10 of zen’ time, she started to develop a style of meditation more tailored to the highs and lows of being a mum.
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Bringing together classic meditation skills, an underpinning knowledge of psychological theory plus personal experiences of therapy and life coaching, Nikki started to record meditations for other mums while on maternity leave for a second time in 2017.
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In 2018 she up 10 of zen as a business with the goal of bringing the proven benefits of her own mindfulness practice to fellow mums around the world.
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As a birth trauma sufferer, she is passionate about raising awareness and sharing her story to help others. She hopes the mindfulness tools and training provided through 10 of zen can be of help to mums who've been affacted - like it was to her
Chloe Mulholland
Midwife
I am a London-based NHS midwife, working in various different areas of maternity. I also run and teach private antenatal classes, covering hypnobirthing techniques and also traditional antenatal education. I am part of this network with the hope of both ending trauma in childbirth and helping those who have already suffered through a traumatic experience. I really feel that in the 21st century this isn’t something that should be an issue and I believe that by working together we can support all women to have a positive birth experience.
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Dr Andrew Mayers
Psychologist
I am an academic Psychologist, specialising in mental health (particularly perinatal mental health). Beyond my academic work at Bournemouth University, I am a perinatal mental health campaigner, educator, researcher and charity manager. I am a member of the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, through which we are members of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. I am a Trustee (and ambassador) for DorPIP, a Dorset-based charity providing therapeutic intervention and support for parent-infant relationships (all too often damaged by birth trauma and perinatal mental illness). I am also a Governor for Dorset HealthCare (the mental health NHS Trust for Dorset) and Patron for Dorset Mind. I have both personal and professional/academic experience of birth trauma. I have undertaken many research projects in perinatal mental health, and more recently this has focused on birth trauma (for mothers and fathers). You can read about my overall work in perinatal mental health, and read about my research in that area. You can follow me on Twitter @DrAndyMayers
Milli Hill
Founder of the Positive Birth Movement
Milli Hill is the founder of the Positive Birth Movement, a global network of free-to-attend antenatal groups, and soon to become a charity. She is passionate that not enough women are currently having a positive birth experience and the organisation aims to share support and information, and connect women together to discuss their birth choices and rights, as just one way of tackling this. She supports Make Birth Better because she feels that it’s vital to tackle the issue of birth trauma and maternal mental health from the standpoint of improving the birth experience itself, not just supporting women who have been traumatised or damaged by it (although this is of course important too). She will not rest until birth trauma, PND and PTSD are the exception rather than the accepted norm
Maria Booker
Programmes Director, Birthrights
Birthrights is a UK charity dedicated to improving maternity care through a focus on human rights. We run an email advice service for women and health care professionals, as well as running training, and carrying out research and policy work. Our experience backs up what we know from research which is that women who are have supportive relationships with healthcare professionals and feel in control of decisions tend to have positive experiences of birth whilst the opposite can lead to birth trauma. You can contact us at info@birthrights.org.uk or find out more on our website at www.birthrights.org.uk
Dr Helena Belgrave
Counselling Psychologist
I am a counselling psychologist who specialises in perinatal issues. These include helping with anxiety or depression, either before or after the birth, as well as more severe anxiety, such as panic attacks. I also work with clients who are suffering from a traumatic birth.
I also see clients who are struggling to adapt to being pregnant or having a baby. Issues could include difficulties bonding with the baby as well as dealing with any unresolved past issues which may come to the forefront whilst pregnant and/or postnatally.
I have worked in the NHS as part of the IAPT perinatal team, and I now work privately.
I am part of the Make Birth Better network, because I am committed to helping improve the birth process so that women do not suffer or feel traumatised from the experience. I feel more education is needed to help lower the number of women who experience birth trauma, and that more help is needed after birth so women do not suffer in silence. By being part of this network, I can help make this happen.
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Julianne Boutaleb
Consultant Perinatal Psychologist, AIMH Executive Committee Member
Julianne is a passionate and highly experienced perinatal psychologist who has worked for over 15 years in the NHS and private practice with parents and parents-to-be and their babies (and bumps) who have needed support with a wide variety of issues including anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy, miscarriage and reproductive loss, attachment issues, re-emergence of childhood issues and couples issues. Julianne is a member of the Birth Trauma Association and Association for Infant Mental Health and specialises in working therapeutically with birth trauma, PTSD and tokophobia (fear of giving birth) as these issues impact the mother and father, couple relationship and parent-infant attachment. In addition, she is also affiliated with BICA (British Infertility Counselling Association) and offers tailored psychological interventions for individuals and couples who are pregnant or are parenting following ART (IVF, ICSI, donor conception, surrogacy) or adoption.
From 2003 to 2009, she was part of a multidisciplinary strategic health team that successfully established Sure Start services in East London. As part of that initiative she set up and ran a community based perinatal psychology service in Newham. From 2009 to 2015, she held clinical lead roles as Clinical Lead for Perinatal Mental Health in primary care and latterly in IAPT services in Newham. She has over 15 years’ experience teaching and training health professionals and parents on issues of parental mental health, attachment, early years and positive mental health for babies and young childre
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Emma Jane Sasaru
Birth Trauma, PTSD lived experience expert. Maternity, PNMH Services Improvement Campaigner
Emma has has worked tirelessly locally and nationally to help raise awareness of birth trauma and its impact on perinatal mental health. This includes running two support pages/websites, campaigning and blogging about her experience as well as helping other women to find support. Emma has used her own experience of recovery from birth trauma and PTSD to help others and reduce stigma for many years
Emma works for the NHS in the Health in Pregnancy team supporting women and their partners who have suffered birth trauma or struggling with their mental health. This provides a safe place for women to talk about their birth experiences and gain support, as well as feedback to maternity services to help improve them. Emma has also trained HCPs on birth trauma and PTSD to reduce stigma and improve care given families. Emma has been highlighting this at a national level and helping to improve services as a result, including helping to develop a tokophobia/birth trauma toolkit.
Emma talks at conferences to help educate HCPs on how birth trauma and PTSD impacts on families and their emotional wellbeing. Emma is part of Black Country PNMH task group and has played a vital role in plans to set up a specialist PNMH service. She also supports the local LMS work to improve maternity services in line with Better Births representing the women she cares for. In early 2018 Emma won a Thrive Mental Health award for her work around birth trauma.
Emma is also part of #matexp.
“My hope is that by sharing my experience and recovery it can give others hope, help others feel
less alone and help improve maternity services to reduce birth trauma and its impact.
You can find Emma at unfoldyourwings.co.uk or Beyondbirthtrauma.com.
Jo Page
Lived experience contributor
I had a traumatic birth 23 years ago resulting in a 4th degree tear leaving me with partial bowel incontinence and an anal sphincter injury. I went on to have a second baby with an elective section and it was a very positive experience.
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I want to be involved in the Network as I'd like to put all of my experience into helping and supporting others, and ensuring health professionals know about the consequences of birth injury.
Anya Hayes
Pilates instructor and author
Anya, a pilates teacher as well as author of four books, gently advocates for mothers' need to take care of themselves throughout pregnancy and their parenting journey. She is now a writer and speaker focusing on perinatal physical and mental health, drawing from her own experiences of postnatal depletion and mental health turbulence. Anya is on a mission to empower women with the tools to emerge through the motherhood labyrinth relatively unscathed, with pelvic floor and sanity intact.
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You can read Anya's blog, or chat to her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Anya has another book coming out later this year, for now you can buy The Supermum Myth here.
Dr Kirstie McKenzie-McHarg
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
I am a clinical psychologist who has worked exclusively in the perinatal field for the last 20 years. I have a particular interest in working with women experiencing birth trauma and primary tokophobia. I am also very interested in working to prevent birth trauma and have introduced a number of initiatives in my Trust which have showed promising results.
Dr Sally Pezaro
The Academic Midwife
Dr Sally Pezaro is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Childbirth. She is also ‘The Academic Midwife’ on Facebook, where she shares her academic life as a registered midwife online. She has experience working as a midwife clinically in the United Kingdom, the Gambia and Ethiopia.
These experiences, along with further workforce research have afforded Sally new insights into the emotional labour of midwifery work in both resource poor and developed countries. Through these insights, Sally has developed a passion for supporting the psychological wellbeing of health care professionals. Throughout her PhD work, Sally secured the case for developing an online intervention, designed to primarily support midwives in work-related psychological distress. The overriding vision forSally’s ongoing research as an academic midwife is to secure a psychologically safe professional journey for midwives and excellence in maternity care.
Kim Thomas
CEO, Birth Trauma Association
Kim is the press officer of the Birth Trauma Association (BTA), the only UK charity supporting parents with postnatal PTSD. She’s also a freelance journalist who specialises in health, social care and education – past and current clients include the Guardian, Financial Times, the Independent and Public Finance. She has also published a book aimed at supporting women with postnatal PTSD, called Birth Trauma: A Guide for You, Your Friends and Family to Coping with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Following Birth. She and her partner have a daughter who is now at university, and a West Highland terrier who isn't.
Lisa Ramsey
Service User Policy Manager, Maternity Transformation Programme
Lisa is the Service User Voice Policy Manager for Maternity in the Maternity Transformation Programme Team at NHS England. Lisa’s role involves promoting and supporting the development of Maternity Voices Partnerships as a vehicle for people who use maternity services, along with those who provide and commission them, to work together to review and co-create maternity care that is kind, safe and personalised, as per the 2016 Better Births report. Lisa has led the recent co-creation of a toolkit for MVPs called 15 Steps for Maternity, which promotes quality from the perspective of those who use maternity services.
Lisa is past chair of Reading MVP and works closely with National Maternity Voices, the national network of MVPs. Lisa’s background is as a Doula UK recognised birth & postnatal doula, providing practical and emotional support to people on a maternity journey and supporting them to make informed decisions about their care. Lisa is keen to see trauma-informed care the norm within maternity, so that all those having a baby can have a positive maternity experience, where they feel in control and well supported.
Joanna Clair Smyth
Health Visitor & Birth Trauma Association Committee member
My name is Jo, and I am on the committee for the Birth Trauma Association. Our aim is to support women to make confident,informed choices that allow them to make educated decisions so that they have a positive birth experience. We are a registered charity and are all volunteers that are passionate about better outcomes for all women that give birth.
I feel that all women should be given support and the knowledge in a compassionate manner to make positive choices that provide the best birth experience where possible for women. Within my work with the Birth trauma association and other work being able to support women so that they feel listened to is important and their partners. The research demonstrates how this can affect the bonding and attachment between mother and baby. This can contribute towards the family overall emotional well-being also.
As a practising health professional within the postnatal period supporting families I have helpedmothers and am aware that there is a lack of services for mothers and their partners after a traumatic birth. By working with the Make birth better network, I hope to contribute toother professionals and agencies to work together to improve birth for all women and reduce the risk of traumatic birth.
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Louise Nunn
Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Midwife
I am a PNMH specialist midwife working in London. I have over 25 years experience as a midwife and during that time have worked in different trusts and clinical areas, including roles in service management, education and training. I have been working in perinatal mental health for the last 4 years. In addition to my clinical role I am also co-chair of the North West London PNMH Clinical Network.
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I have always been passionate about supporting women to achieve a positive birth experience, and attending the first Birth Trauma conference in 2015 inspired me to develop my role in this area. I have developed an antenatal pathway to support women with birth fear or trauma, as it’s important to provide timely support and treatment to help women and their partners achieve a positive birth experience. I support Make Birth Better because I feel that it’s vital to highlight the psychological aspects of birth as well as the physical and how we can support women to achieve a truly positive experience.
Camilla Rosan
National ​Programme Lead for Perinatal Mental Health
Camilla works at NHS England in their Mental Health Clinical Policy and Strategy team leading the national perinatal mental health transformation programme.
Camilla is a chartered consultant clinical psychologist and couple therapist by background and over her career has held a range of therapeutic roles relating to perinatal and family mental health. She has specific therapeutic training in video-feedback, cognitive behavioural therapy, compassion-focused approaches, emotion-focused couples therapy and mindfulness.
Camilla has a clinical academic background and has published extensively in peer-review journals, therapy manuals, book chapters, policy reports and national guidelines.
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She has a specialist research interest in developing the field of couples work from pre-conception across the transition to parenthood and beyond. She is passionate about raising the profile of clinical psychology within the wider mental health landscape and empowering female leadership within the profession.
Camilla is a mum and lives with her partner, toddler and Westie terrier in South London.
Dr Alison Wright
RCOG Vice-President for UK & Global Membership
Dr Alison Wright is the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists’ Vice-President for UK & Global Membership, leading on issues facing doctors and women, and how co-production can resolve these.
She trained in the Yorkshire region, UK, and currently works as a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Her clinical interests include maternal medicine, urogynaecology and childbirth trauma, both emotional and physical.
She has sat on the RCOG boards of education, global health and clinical quality and is the clinical representative on the Women’s Network. She is also a media spokesperson for the RCOG and contributes to the development of the College’s information materials produced for women.
She is committed to training and education in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and teaches practical skills in maternity – both in London and internationally. She has previously spent a year working voluntarily in rural India on safe motherhood projects where she led on a programme training traditional birth attendants.
Before her Vice-Presidency, Dr Wright was the RCOG Council international representative for Europe and then Asia. During her term in these roles she supported projects in safe motherhood in Eastern Europe, India and Pakistan. She has given lectures and led workshops on guideline adaptation and human rights issues at international meetings, in Romania, Ethiopia and India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
She was part of the WHO guideline group which published the ‘positive experience in childbirth’ and co-led the group which produced the NHS England ‘place of birth decision aids’.
Dr Wright has a long standing interest in user involvement and has previously co-chaired an MSLC (now MVP) with an NCT teacher. Her remit as VP of the RCOG includes responsibility for the RCOG Women’s Network; the College’s lay group which guides the strategic direction of involvement activities.
She is committed to improving services the RCOG can offer doctors and women, collaborating with other organisations, particularly in supporting implementation of evidence based guidelines, high quality training and shared decision making.
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Alex Thornton
Trainee Clinical Psychologist
After completing a psychology undergraduate degree, I worked in third sector and private mental health services for around 8 years, primarily with children and adolescents, in both England and New Zealand. On my return to the UK in 2013 I worked with Professor Susan Ayers, an expert in birth trauma and maternal and infant mental health, on a number of research projects at City, University of London. I completed a MSc in Child Development during this time. I am currently studying for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Essex, where my thesis is exploring women’s experiences of the process of recovery from birth trauma. I am interested in feminist and social constructionist approaches to understanding maternal mental health and wellbeing and am passionate about working to reduce birth trauma and improve parent and child wellbeing.
Rebecca Schiller
CEO of Birthrights, Writer & Doula
Rebecca Schiller is the CEO of Birthrights, the human rights in childbirth charity, and a doula, who is known by her Twitter handle The Hackney Doula. She is the author of Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter and is a regular contributor to numerous publications including the Guardian and The Pool. Rebecca lives on a ramshackle smallholding with her husband, her two children and a motley crew of chickens and ducks. Her new book, Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan: a revolutionary guide to pregnancy, birth and the weeks that follow is out now. You can find her on her website, and chat to her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Vicki Cockerill
Mum, blogger, campaigner and advocate
Vicki is a NICU/ CHD Mum of two boys, a freelance blogger and social media adviser, Co-Founder of #knackeredandNorwich social club, NICU campaigner and maternal mental health advocate. I want to be part of the network to make birth better to ensure everyone has access to the right service and has the information they need without judgement or feeling like they have to suffer in silence. I want to be part of ending birth trauma stigma.
Lyanne Nicholl
Charity professional & campaigner
Lyanne is a charity professional and campaigner for improved postnatal care. Lyanne started her career in fundraising and, prior to setting up her consultancy, was Executive Director for the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. Currently Lyanne works with small-to-medium charities on strategy and fundraising and does 'bits and bobs' of freelance writing. Lyanne set up the Women's Postnatal Health Community on Facebook and @pelvicuprising on Twitter with fellow campaigner, Gemma Dawson. Together they are passionate about ensuring women can be supported to achieve lifelong optimal health after childbirth. Lyanne lives in Kent with her husband and young son.
Anon
Lived Experience Contributor
I'm a working mum with two young children. I would like to raise awareness of birth trauma, in particular the importance of informed consent, effect of communication and protocols on psychological, emotional and physical outcomes for women. I feel there are ways women can be supported in the perinatal period to ensure a smooth transition into motherhood.
In sharing my personal experience, I hope it will help to bring about positive changes in care culture and respectful practices to prevent birth trauma. Happy healthy mums raise happy healthy babies. Mums' voices must be heard and respected in balance with medical opinions.
Sara Rance
Consultant Child Psychotherapist & Parent Infant Psychotherapist
Sara is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist and a specialist in Parent Infant Psychotherapy (PIP) and work with Under 5s and their parents and carers. She now works in independent practice in North London as well as teaching and supervising practitioners working in the public-sector and third sector in Perinatal, Infant Mental Health teams and Child Mental Health Service. She has worked in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services, voluntary services and now in independent practice.
In her Parent Infant work Sara encounters difficulties in parent infant relationships that can follow on from traumatic births or experience of less than optimal care in the perinatal period and she is keen to contribute to a network focussed on improving the birth experience for mothers and their partners.
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Parent Infant Psychotherapy (PIP) aims to promote infants’ attachment security and parental bonding and to address a range of difficulties experienced by parents and their babies and young children. Sara was the winner of the Infant Mental Health practitioner category in the 2016 PIP UK awards.
Julia Marotti
Psychology Student & Make Birth Better volunteer
I completed my undergraduate degree in psychology at University College London followed by an MSc in Developmental Psychology and Clinical Practice at the Anna Freud Centre. During my MSc, I did a 2-year parent-infant observation and had a placement at an incredible Perinatal team in East London, which opened my eyes to the importance of supporting parents during this crucial period. I am passionate to develop a career in psychology, so I can continue working to support families’ with their mental health and wellbeing. I currently oversee the Make Birth Better map.
Eleanor Drury
Undergraduate Psychology Student and Make Birth Better volunteer
I am a second year psychology undergraduate student at the University of Bath. My studies made me realise that despite a large proportion of the population having children, the mental health of women and their partners is often overlooked.
My role in the Make Birth Better Network comprises of finding and contacting services across the UK to establish whether they offer perinatal support services. These are then plotted onto the Make Birth Better Map, allowing you to find help near you.
Hannah Horne
Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Midwife and Blogger
I am a Midwife with 16 years working within various midwifery roles within the NHS. I have always been passionate about providing well informed, evidence based, holistic care to women and their families. I believe communication is the key to ensure women have positive and safe birth experiences and my interest in this area has grown following my own experience of birth trauma and the emotional transition to motherhood. For the last two years I have worked as a a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Midwife supporting women with issues around their mental health and birth trauma. I also write about the emotional transition to motherhood, sharing stories of birth, motherhood and mental health through my website Birthing Mamas Blog because ‘when a baby is born so is a mother.’
Natasha Pearlman
Editor and Broadcaster
Natasha Pearlman is an award-winning editor and broadcaster. She began her career at the Daily Mail, before becoming Features Editor at the News of the World, deputy editor of Fabulous magazine, deputy editor of ELLE magazine and Editor of Grazia Magazine.
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Most recently she has written extensively on the subject of trauma in childbirth and the importance of thorough and unbiased birth education for all parents-to-be and is a passionate campaigner for making birth a better experience for all
Susie Cabrillana
Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Midwife & CBT Psychotherapist
My name is Susie and I'm a specialist perinatal mental health midwife and also a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist. I have been passionate about perinatal mental health and have trained and educated myself on this over the last 7 years. In my last job I acted as MH champion in my maternity unit which helped prepare me to take on a role as specialist PMH midwife in my current post.
My role is to act as lead for perinatal mental health and includes signposting and supporting women with mild, moderate or severe MH challenges and liaising with agencies to ensure best support for the women and their families. This includes sometimes meeting with the women to assess their difficulties and ensuring they are linked in to peer support networks, their local children's centre, referrals to specialist infant mental health services, and/or referring them to talking therapies if appropriate.
I am increasingly aware of the prevalence of birth trauma and the impact it has on the mother, the partner and the relationship with the infant . I strive to raise awareness with maternity staff through training and providing information and latest research on birth trauma and prevention. I am acutely aware, through discussions with women affected by birth trauma of the important role the health care professional plays in supporting women and that sadly, as much trauma is caused by the experiences women/partners have of the health care professional, as is caused by physical/obstetric trauma.
Whilst our Trust offers both Birth Choices and Birth Reflections clinic, there is still much to do in both identifying risk, identifying training needs for staff and ensuring appropriate support is available for women & their partners at all stages of the perinatal journey.
I am delighted to be getting involved in the Birth Trauma Network and hope to be able to learn, share and find creative ways to improve services and support women in both prevention and treatment for birth trauma. I am very interested in the concept of trauma-informed care and hope to find out how others are introducing this kind of pathway and model of woman-centred care and what women’s experiences of better services look like.
Liz Nightingale
Retired midwife, Nightingale Birth Friend
I am a retired midwife with a continuing interest in supporting families around birth. I have worked both in the NHS and, for the last ten years, as an independent midwife.
I currently work as a Nightingale Birth Friend
My work has frequently put me in contact with women and family members experiencing strong negative emotions about previous birth experiences. I offer support, and independent reviews of care notes. I am keen to work with mothers and various practitioners to help heal old hurts and to reduce those experiencing such responses in future.Liz
Laura Heeks
Mum and Founder of Birth Trauma Support Family
I have personally suffered birth trauma and this is what led me to create the Instagram support group @birthtraumasupportfamily In addition to the Instagram group, a friend (who also has survived birth trauma) and I hope to set up a facebook group to run alongside it in the near future. My little boy is 2 now, but I still struggle with various issues as a result of his birth, and so I understand just how hard it is to mother and to live life under the shadow of birth trauma. I wanted to support other mums (and family members) effected by these issues, as well as gain support myself and share information / raise awareness. I am a long way off feeling like I've healed, but I hope to one day. In the meantime it helps a little to feel like @birthtraumasupportfamily might be supporting other people going through similar things. I am also a part-time graphic designer as well as a pretty much full-time mum.
Suzanne Munroe
Director & Solicitor, Head of Clinical Negligence Department, Switalskis Solicitors
I am head of the Clinical Negligence team here at Switalskis Solicitors in Yorkshire . I specialise in obstetric cases – injuries at birth to mothers and babies. I have represented countless women who have suffered birth trauma over the last 28 years and, sadly, I still meet far too many women (and men) who are so affected by the experience of labour and delivery. I have worked with professionals who understand the psychological damage that many parents carry with them for years. I ensure that wherever I can I signpost my clients to the help that they so badly need. I am committed to working with other professionals to make births better for all mothers, fathers and their babies.
I am a mother of 4 – my eldest is 24 , I have twins age 20 and the youngest is 14
Sakina Ballard
Hypnobirthing teacher
Sakina is a mum of 2 who had very different birth experiences. Inspired to support other parents in creating better birth experiences, she is now a Hypnobirthing Teacher, Birth Trauma Resolution Practitioner and Facilitates Positive Birth Movement and Birth Reflections groups in South London.
Dr Debbie Chippington Derrick
Chair of Trustees, AIMS (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Service)
I am involved with the Make Birth Better Network as a representative of AIMS, but as with most AIMS volunteers I have come to my role in AIMS via other roles within childbirth support and campaigning. AIMS is a lay (non -health care provider) volunteer run organisation founded in 1960 and became a charity in 2014.
AIMS suppors all maternity service users to navigate the system as it exists, and campaigns for a system which truly meets the needs of all.
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I have personally suffered birth trauma, but at a time when birth trauma and PTSD were not really understood or acknowledged. Along with other women, I have done my part in sharing understanding on these issues, and the reason that I became involved with AIMS was that they were really listening to women who were traumatised, providing support and campaigning for better care for traumatised mothers.
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I truly hope that not only will women struggling with trauma today be better understood and supported, but that we can start making sure that birth is supported in a way that avoids this damage occurring in the first place.
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Dr Rebecca Knowles Bevis
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist, Research Psychologist & Birth Doula
I am an experienced clinical psychologist, currently in private practice in Oxfordshire having worked in the NHS for over ten years. As well as offering individual psychological and therapeutic support to parents-to-be and to new families, I run ‘Nurturing Mothers’, a postnatal course with a dedicated focus on self-care and self-compassion for new mothers. In addition to my clinical role, I have two other jobs: I’m a birth doula, providing unconditionally loving support to families as they navigate pregnancy, birth and the immediate postnatal period; and I also work as a research psychologist at the University of Oxford, where I conduct and supervise research into parenting and perinatal mental health. I am always keen to explore new opportunities for research collaboration, so please get in touch if you have an idea you’d like to discuss!
I am part of the Make Birth Better Network because I am a self-confessed birth geek who is completely passionate about improving the experiences and wellbeing of every parent, before, during and after birth. I am particularly interested in the place of compassion in maternity care, and in how more compassionate services have the potential to change the experiences, and therefore the lives, of birthing women, their partners and families, and their babies.
Ruth Butterworth
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Ruth Butterworth is a consultant clinical psychologist with the Cheshire and Mersey specialist perinatal mental health service. She is passionate about parent and infant mental health and about supporting responsive and trauma informed pathways within maternity and neonatal care to ensure that mums, partners and babies get the best start in family life. She also believes strongly that we can’t get these pathways right unless we pay close attention to supporting the emotional wellbeing of colleagues working within these services, responding to their needs so they can do the same for our families in turn.
