Professor Soo Downe
BA(Hons), RM, MSc, PhD, OBE, University of Central Lancashire, UK
Keynote Title: “Positive birth experiences for long-term benefit: right care, right time, right relationships”
Biography
Professor Soo Downe spent 15 years working as a clinical and research midwife in Derby. In 2001, she joined UCL, UK where she is now the Professor of Midwifery Studies. She has undertaken research in a range of maternity care areas, including the organisation of services, bereavement after stillbirth, the safety and use of caesarean section, and the nature of, and cultures around, physiological (normal) birth. She has been a member of the Technical Working Group of the World Health Organization antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, ultrasound, uterotonics for the prevention of PPH, and optimising caesarean section guidelines. She has published over 180 peer reviewed papers, and several books, she was a co-author in three Lancet Series (Midwifery, Stillbirth, and Optimising Caesarean Section). She is an UK NIHR Senior Investigator, and is co- lead on the NIHR Cherish study, and a co-investigator on the national UK GBS3 trial, and the MRC C-Safe study in India and Tanzania.
Dr Kim Thomas
Birth Trauma Association (CEO)
Keynote Title: “How maternity care in the UK harms women - and how research helps us fight to improve it”
Biography
Dr Kim Thomas is CEO of the Birth Trauma Association, a UK charity that supports parents experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after birth. She has also worked as a freelance journalist for more than 20 years, writing for national newspapers and magazines, and now specialises in writing about health and medicine. She has published two books about birth trauma: Birth Trauma: A Guide for You, Your Friends and Family to Coping with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Following Birth; and Postnatal PTSD: a Guide for Health Professionals.
Prof Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg
Swedish University of Agriculture, Sweden
Keynote Title: “Social support in connection with birth may improve the progress and experience of birth and decrease the risk of postpartum traumatic experiences by modification of oxytocin release and the function of the oxytocin receptor”
Biography
Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg is a specialist in women’s health and female physiology and has worked within these fields for more than 30 years. She is a pioneer in research about oxytocin,’’ the hormone of love and wellbeing”, and was one of the first researchers to point out the behavioural, psychological and physiological effects of oxytocin during birth, breastfeeding and menopause.
