Profile
Biography
Catriona is an experienced academic with 19 years combined expertise in midwifery education and research in the area of maternal and reproductive health. She qualified as a midwife in 1996 and worked clinically for 8 years in a variety of maternity settings in NHS Ayrshire and Arran (Scotland), Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
She became a midwifery lecturer in 2004, and is committed to enhancing the learning experiences of healthcare students. She has experience of teaching and supervising undergraduate, post graduate and PhD students. She has held external examiner positions for undergraduate midwifery programmes throughout her midwifery education career.
In 2020 she received a Chief Midwifery Officer Silver Award for the significant and outstanding contribution she has made to the development of a pathway of care for women who experience fear of childbirth and tokophobia in pregnancy.
Qualifications
- RM
- BSc (Hons)
- MSc
- PhD
- FHEA
Research
Overview
Catriona has an established record of successful grant capture and peer reviewed outputs in the field of maternal, reproductive, and sexual health. Throughout her educational career as lecturer in midwifery, and more recently Interim Lead Midwife for Education at University of Leeds, she has been actively engaged in applied research in the area of maternal mental health, specifically fear of childbirth. Her research interests are varied and she has managed and contributed to many research projects including:
- The development of training packages to improve detection of maternal mental illness
- The use fear of childbirth outcome measures in clinical practice
- The impact of CTG training packages on midwives knowledge and competence
- Non attendance to perinatal mental health appointments in specialist care
- The effectiveness of antenatal nurturing programmes on maternal wellbeing
- The social processes informing asexual self identity
- The effectiveness of outreach interventions to prevent repeat pregnancy in teenagers
- LGBT experiences of engaging with primary care services
- The use of complementary and alternative therapies in childbearing
- An audit of stillbirths from 2009 - 2015.
She completed her PhD titled ‘A constructivist grounded theory of the social processes informing asexual self-identity’ in 2019.
Supervision
- Fear of childbirth
- Perinatal mental health and illness
- Asexuality
Teaching
Undergraduate
Catriona teaches on our BMid Hons and MMid programmes.
External activities
Invited talks and conferences
- November 2020: Royal College of Psychiatrists Perinatal quality network annual forum (webinar). Evaluation of perinatal mental health services: the process of embedding outcome measures.
- June 2020: Maternity midwifery festival. Developing a care pathway for women with fear of childbirth.
- March 2020: The Trinity health and education international conference 2020, Dublin. Evaluation of perinatal mental health services.
- April 2019: Hull University. Teatime talk: Tokophobia.
- March 2019: The Conference: School of Nursing and Midwifery. Trinity College Dublin Oral presentation. Pathways of care for women with varying levels of fear of childbirth.
- October 2018: Hull University. Teatime talk: Asexuality.
- September 2018: The British Science Festival: Hull. Oral presentation. Tokophobia: fear of childbirth.
- June 2018: RDASH Grounded Theory Conference. Oral presentation. Tokophobia.
- March 2018: Allam Lecture. Oral presentation. Non-attendance and attendance in perinatal mental health care in Hull and East Riding.
- September 2018: SRIP, Society for Reproductive Infant Psychology Research Conference. Oral presentation. York. Women encountering out of body experiences during childbirth.
- October 2017: Royal College of Midwives Conference: Manchester. Oral presentation. Working in partnership to explore stillbirth locally across a 6 year period.
- October & November 2017 (Manchester and London): Journal of Health Visiting: Invited Speaker. Mental health in Pregnancy.
- March 2017: East Asian Forum on Nursing Science Conference, Hong Kong. Poster presentation. Understanding asexual identity as a means to facilitate culturally competent care: a systematic literature review
- November 2016: Royal College of Midwives Conference, Harrogate. Poster presentation. The impact of antenatal psychological group interventions on psychological well-being: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative evidence.
- October 2016: Maternity, Midwifery, Baby. Manchester. ‘Welcome to the World’ – evaluation of an antenatal parenting programme.
- September 2016: SRIP, Society for Reproductive Infant Psychology Research Conference, Leeds. Metaethnographic synthesis of father’s experiences of the neonatal intensive care unit environment during hospitalisation of their premature infants.
- 1st June – 4th June 2014: International Confederation of Midwives 30th Triennial Conference: The Prague Congress Centre, Prague. Lecture presentation: Title: The impact of peer support in the context of perinatal mental health: a meta ethnography.
- 31st January 2014: National Gastrointestinal Nursing Conference: Using 21st century innovations to improve patient outcomes. CBI Centre. London, Lecture presentation: Title: Using social media in daily care.
- 17th September 2013: SRIP, Society for Reproductive Infant Psychology Research Conference, University of Hull, Poster Presentation with Dr Lesley Glover and Professor Julie Jomeen: Title: Exploring health visitors’ experiences of clinical practice in relation to perinatal mental health problems before and after training.
- 21st March 2013: University of Hull, Contemporary Interventions in Maternity Care. Lecture presentations: Peer Support Schemes for women with Perinatal Mental Illness. Co presenter with Professor Julie Jomeen, and Complementary Therapies Use in Local Maternity Care: initiation, uptake and efficacy.
- 16th November 2012: Brighton Conference Centre, The Royal College of Midwives Annual Conference, Lecture presentation. Title: Complementary Therapies in Local Maternity Care.
- 22nd September 2012: University of Cambridge, NET Conference, Lecture presentation. Title: Social Networking in the Health Professionals.
- 23rd March 2011: University of Hull, Technology Expo Conference, poster presentation. Title: The Challenges of Attempting to Apply the Standards of Professional Behaviour Used in “Physical Space”, to Cyberspace. Co-presenter with Ola Ogbuehi
- 4th November 2009: 9th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Poster presentation, Title: An Exploration of the Safety of Lavender Oil for Treatment of Perineal Trauma.
- 14th July 2009: University of Worcester, Women & Birth: Politics, Power and Practice. International Midwifery Conference: Title: Lavender Oil and Wound Healing: Exploring Autonomy for an “Alternative” Perspective.
- 6th/7th April 2009: National University of Ireland; 2nd International Conference ‘Building and Promoting Excellence in Practice'. Lecture presentation: Title: The Use of Lavender Oil as a Topical Treatment for Perineal Trauma.
- 22nd January 2009: University Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Hull. Conference Presentation: Towards Flexibility in Higher education: Title: Demonstrating the Flexibility of an Outcome Based Curriculum Using a VLE.
- 2nd June 2008: University of Hull, Scarborough Campus: New Media Workshop. Presentation Title: Online Peer Observation Project (with Shirley Bennett and Kate Bowers).
- 17th January 2008: University Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Hull. Conference presentation (with Shirley Bennett, Kate Bowers, Ola Ogbuehi) Title: Improving the Student Learning Experience Through Online Peer Observation.
- June 2007: University of Hull, Master class and Showcase Conference, Lecture presentation with Julie Santy. Title: Using E-learning Tools to Enhance Health Care Education.
- 9th November 2006: 7th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Lecture presentation of results of stage one (with Linda Wylie) Title: An Exploration of the Factors that Cause Stress in Student Midwives.
Media coverage
Fear of childbirth and social media use: