More Information on the SG & Advisors

I have been a midwife for 25 years and an ARM member since before then. I have a strong belief that good maternity care is a feminist issue. I have worked in the NHS in hospital, community and MLU in rural Northumberland. In addition to my NHS work, I have also been an independent midwife for a small caseload since 2002.
Email Katherine

I was a midwifery academic now retired and my passion is women and midwifery. I firmly believe that women should have true informed choice be treated as a fellow adult human being and most particularly have continuity of carer and gentle, compassionate care. I believe that the maternity services should be properly funded and care delivered against National standards with home birth and independent midwifery available everywhere with midwives in charge of their own profession at all levels. ARM is in my opinion the most active and best placed organisation to take this forward.
Email Irene

Qualified as UK midwife in 1994 and then a few years later completed a research degree at the University of Nottingham and have been involved with ARM in all sorts of capacities and ways since a student. Prior to this became a mother and had a nursing and feminist political activist background from 1970’s and a very wide range of experience in public health care.
Worked as both NHS community midwife and Independent midwife in the UK and.a rural and remote, hospital based and group practice midwife in Australia. Personal circumstances leads me to spend time in both northern and southern hemispheres.
My main activism has always focused around supporting home birth choices and plans wherever and however I can.
Volunteered to be the current ARM treasurer as that need arose and still transitioning to the role.

ARM member since 1979.

I recently retired as midwife lecturer in Scotland. Still active within Midwifery and the ARM, I’m keen to promote social media as a means of encouraging networking between the world’s Midwives
Email Linda

Ever since the birth of my third child in 1991, I have worked towards making birth a safer and more rewarding experience for mothers and their babies. After a first degree in music and psychology, I gained an MPhil from Keele in 1998, researching into Mothers’ Experience of Birth at Home and in Hospital.

I edited Midwifery Matters from 1996 to 2015. I’ve written two books, Childbirth Unmasked (1993) and Dynamic Positions in Birth (2014) and designed the Osborne Kneeling Chair.

ARM member since 1996

I became a midwife later in life after having my own 5 children. I worked within the NHS for many years in a variety of settings including hospitals and community teams, and then for 5 years with One to One Midwives carrying my own case load and giving continuity of care. I have felt very privileged to have supported women through pregnancy and birth and emerge on the other side as parents.
Juno Midwifery

Lynn joined ARM in 1989 as a mother planning to one day train as a midwife. She was a Steering Group member as a student midwife, an NHS midwife and Independent Midwife. She first wrote in Midwifery Matters in the early 1990s and has contributed regularly even beyond her retirement from midwifery in 2011. Lynn is studying for a doctorate (DFA) at the University of Glasgow concentrating on creative writing.

ARM member since 2020

Reign is a 2nd year student midwife at Lewisham & Greenwich Trust, a placenta encapsulation specialist & trainee Hypnobirther.
She is interested in the widespread adoption of continuity of care in maternity services, reducing induction and caesarean section rates and closing the health disparity for Black, brown and Asian birthing people.

ARM member since 2022

Clare is a mature student midwife in her first year, she has four children and worked for many years as a breastfeeding counsellor. She has a particular interest in Infant feeding and in the experiences of asylum seeking mothers.

Emeritus professor of midwifery at Sheffield Hallam University and holds honorary professorial positions at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Auckland University of Technology. Her books include Informed Choice in Maternity Care, Birth Centres: A social model of maternity care, The Midwife/Mother Relationship, and Exploring the Dirty Side of Women’s Health. Since her official retirement, her research has included a study of a “failed” birth centres and a review of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in the care of independent midwives. She is currently collecting stories of births without professional attendants.

ARM member since 1980

ARM was a lifeline for me as a student midwife in Manchester in the early 80s. I qualified in 1982, then worked in a variety of midwifery roles including independently. I am now a senior midwifery lecturer at the University of Salford. I have always considered birth to be a deeply political issue and have published numerous papers on various midwifery topics. My most recent research looked at the traumatic experiences of student midwives. I love working with the midwives of the future and they are a constant source of inspiration!
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