Ep 88 Liz McNeill and the 4th anniversary wrap up

Ep 88 (http://ibit.ly/Re5V) Liz McNeill and the 4th anniversary wrap up

@PhDMidwives #research #midwifery 

The 2024 podcast year showcased a diverse array of inspiring midwifery professionals from around the globe. From the UK, US, Nigeria, Australia and beyond, guests shared their unique journeys, research findings, and insights into improving maternal and neonatal care. Key themes explored throughout the year included addressing the critical issue of midwifery burnout, promoting cultural safety and inclusivity in care, and navigating the evolving landscape of technology and its impact on women's health. The podcast provided a platform for these voices to be heard, offering listeners valuable insights and a deeper understanding of the challenges and triumphs within the field of midwifery. The podcast's global reach continued to expand, reaching listeners in 88 countries. 
  
To further support this community, a LinkedIn page titled "PhD Midwives" was launched, offering a platform for doctoral students and graduates to connect and share their experiences and will remain an active hub for community support and engagement.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:28

And here we are at the end of 2024 and our fourth year of the podcast, so thank you for continuing to listen. We have now spread to 88 countries and continually getting downloads, which is fabulous to see because every episode gets listened to at some stage during the year multiple times. It's been a very packed year for me. I'm coming up to my last hopefully six or so months in my PhD next year, so Health Reasons have meant we've only had 17 episodes this year, so hopefully that will increase over the next couple of years. We have also expanded our linkage with PhD midwives onto Blue Sky Social and we also have a LinkedIn page called PhD midwives, which is looking at supporting the community of those interested in doing PhDs those doing PhDs and those having done it and when I say PhDs, I mean any of the doctoral qualifications, so prof docs, dnps or DMPs Everyone is welcome. It's a supportive environment.

Speaker 1 1:42

So for the wrap-up for this year and where have we started and where have we ended? So we started this year speaking to Megan Arbor from America and looking at her journey from music to the clinical space and then also going into education, and she spends a lot of her times around supporting the DNP program in America and looking at the education and also trauma-informed care. We then went on to Thomasina Stacey from the UK and looking at her journey into her PhD and then her research that changed practice around stillborn and looking at where she got into that and then how that's continued into collaborative research afterwards around maternal health. Then we went from Jenny Hall from the UK who did a professional doctorate as opposed to a PhD and looking at her work and combining it and the spirituality of midwifery and how she actually used and combined the art of midwifery and in her case was looking at quilts and knitting and looking at the narrative and the positive within midwifery and her support within that in mentorship and collaboration.

Speaker 1 3:16

Carolyn Homer from Australia is next, though. She's known internationally because of her work around the world and especially with the Berner Institute and we looked at her journey through but also looking at her involvement in trials and what's happened afterwards and her immense collaboration with so many different people and so many different projects and looking at how we need to continue to make identification of the post-PhD's roles really important and where they sit. Next was Sarah Bays, and so from Australia, and looking at her PhD in particular around preparation for cesarean sections, but also then translating that research into practice. So we know that there is a lag between research results being produced and then that implementation into practice, and we need to narrow that Now. In some cases that implementation is quite rapid, not always for the right reasons, depending on the quality and the critique of the trial, but we're also looking at how we do implement changes faster. Next is Faith, and she's kind of talking about what she did with her PhD, with her PhD, but also looking at midwifery in Nigeria and especially looking at her history, her family history, with her mother's experiences, then going through doing a PhD in another country, and then how she's set up and has been very, quite instrumental in setting up a PhD program in Nigeria that's open to other African countries as well, which is helping to make the PhD and postgraduate qualifications a lot more accessible, because it's available closer to home and it means that people do not have to travel quite distances to other countries to do that, and it's actually being supported by the world bank. The african center of excellent has international speakers in it as well. So looking at where she's come, why she's being so passionate about it and the future is going to be really exciting to kind of follow through, because we know that through the state of the world's midwifery report that the amount of midwives in Africa in particular is the greatest deficit around, and we know that evidence-based practice is one of the keystones to a sustainable workforce.

Speaker 1 6:06

Then in May, as always on May 5th, we had the virtual International Day of the Midwife Conference, which starts on depending on which country you're on, usually goes for 24 hours over the 5th and goes around the world. We had, I think, 44 countries coming through. We had huge amounts of presentations and we're gearing up for next year's already and the expressions of interest are out for that. So check the vidmorg website and put your expressions of interest in for presentations, posters and facilitators and that's really good because that's all available on the Virtual Midwife YouTube channel so you can actually go and catch any of the speakers that you didn't see at the time. It's always there available after the conference, and also the posters as well.

Speaker 1 7:05

Then we went up to Scotland and spoke to Moe Tabib and looking at emotional intelligence in maternal care and a really interesting reflection on her history coming from Iran and then moving through to work in another country and then looking at the demands for not only completing a PhD but also looking at their effects afterwards and the emotional intelligence programs that she has now been able to establish and now provides access to for midwifery practice. Kate buchanan, from australia, had a fascinating chat with compassionate care and women-centred ethics framework. So re-looking at a midwifery focus as opposed to a biomedical ethics framework and that's the new framework is going through the much more women-centred framework and also talking about the kind of the breakthrough of what we need to do in engaging as non-traditional roles. So looking at midwives in the clinical and research positions and so not just collecting the data but actually leading and working with other professions to lead the research. Back to the UK and to Sue Dow and one of the Midwifery's Innovations and Global Insights. Sue's had an amazing career and working across different countries, been involved in so many different projects and looking at the variety of different areas that she has been in, including kind of caesarean section rates, physiological births and looking at birth trauma as well. Having a chat about the PhD or the postgraduate journey and, having also been on the other side now for quite a long time, sharing some insight into selecting research topics and the importance that what everyone says is you've got to have a passion for it.

Speaker 1 9:23

Back to Australia, then, and Mel Jackson and looking at her different journey through midwifery and being an entrepreneur and how she's kind of combined the worlds of naturopathy and midwifery, and looking at her pathway, her pursuit of knowledge that led her to a PhD, but also then going through and developing a business and a coaching business and a mentoring business and looking at what some of the other needs that as midwives we often feel that we don't deserve and we should be doing this all for love, but actually looking at it from a business point of view and what can be offered and what we need and not to be afraid to offer services. And then across the water and over to Canada and America, but also including UK. Cecilia Jevitt and her journey across the oceans from America to the UK for her PhD, looking at management and education and regulation and then kind of working, the differences between UK and US and the Canadian healthcare systems, where she's ended up both as a clinician and also as an educator. So a lot of comparison between the two or the three, really. And then with the Virgin Islands as well. Back to the UK and talking to Tom McEwan and back to Scotland really and talking through a professional doctorate so different pathway and looking at his pathway into Scotland. And also we chatted about the experience of being a male midwife and the implications for gender diversity in midwifery and also his education so his journey through a professional doctorate and how that's helped him and especially the linkage with free writing and the bonus that that can be about. And we also talked about Scotland's Best Start program and the impact on neonatal care. So his research really did make a difference and he's been called in to consult on the neonatal care and also looking at research in that area as well.

Speaker 1 12:02

Across to America, in New York City to speak to Mimi Niles on amazing work she's done on transforming midwifery and advocating for women's health. So once again, looking at a healthcare system that is radically different to what most of us know, not being in the us health care system and looking at all the issues that involves in that and where her background has come from that and how that's helped mold her. But also looking at how the systems work and how she's been able to find the data, speak to the data and be consulted on the data and help to change practice over there, and it's really one of the things I find quite fascinating. A talking to everybody on this podcast is the things that I learn in every single interview about different countries different times. Every single interview about different countries, different times, different healthcare areas, about the way that they work, and it is about the fact that people have been working in these areas see a problem and then that's what they want to change and so that's what they want to explore. So that genuine curiosity of how can I make what I'm doing better for midwives, for women and pregnant people and their families, that genuine desire to make it better, is what fundamentally is at the base of the majority of interviews.

Speaker 1 13:31

Coming back then, talking to Sandra Malata another interesting conversation not only talking about innovation and leadership, but also talking about artificial intelligence and where that's going to sit in midwifery. We know it's sitting in healthcare, we know that in general it's now pervasive and especially in education it is an interesting issue. But we spoke to Sandra about her experiences from Argentina and then moving up to Canada and then doing multiple different. So she did an MBA, which ultimately then led to a PhD, and looking at the intersection of technology and women's health and looking at the fact that women's health isn't necessarily accounted for in a lot of the research. It's not recorded as well in the research and we've got lots of conversations about the recording of gender and sex. And where does that kind of sit into? And trying the inclusiveness without being exclusive, and also then looking at the experience of going through and, once again, the magic support that supervisors can give. Back then to the Scotland again. I'm going to Scotland a lot this year.

Speaker 1 14:56

Jenny Patterson and burnout, trauma, midwifery burnout, resilience and healing, and then looking through her personal journey and it is everyone's personal journey is quite fascinating because it not only shows the difference of pathways that we go through but it also shows some of the parallel and some of the similarities that we go through as well. So, whilst we may go through slightly different pathways, there's an element that we can all kind of link into. And looking at her involvement in the birth project group and her collaborations with other researchers that convinced her that a PhD was suitable for her. And we're looking at the emotional toll on caregivers and the urgent need for systematic, systematic reform, which we know about we all having worked in that system, whether it's a clinical system or the education system. And looking at how do we keep the the positiveness when all we're seeing is so much negativity and burnout, and how do we increase our own resilience. And looking at the project that she is going through and in fact will be coming out sometime next year, in 2025, is her book project on love in midwifery, which is going to be really one to watch out for.

Speaker 1 16:19

Episode 86 was Bev Jarvis and the need for persistence in midwifery reform to navigate childbirth services. So a couple of continuing themes through here, but looking at once again how somebody's journey through midwifery gets them into research. Gets them into for her was establishing successful home birth teams and looking at continuity of care, then looking at the challenges towards it and then looking at the reflection of how do we keep this going. And our last formal episode interview for this year was episode 87, and that was in December and that was Rake Me Elmer, looking at navigating emergency postpartum hysterectomy, cultural advocacy and academic changes. So, whilst from Australia, she has talked a little bit about the Lebanese background and also the coexisting as a Muslim student and as a Muslim staff member, and looking at the cultural change in Western Sydney, balancing the PhD with all the new jobs which is something that happens if you're not able to get a full-time scholarship to do your studies but also looking at the cultural care, cultural safety care. So we do a lot within australian indigenous and first nations but it's looking at how do we do that to the other cultures as well and including that within our education. But within our practice and her linkages with the, the mental health groups and midwifery care that are available as well. So this year's been, I think, quite amazing.

Speaker 1 18:17

Next year is going to be amazing again. Just to give you the heads up as I get into the intensive writing period, especially in the first six months of 2025. There may be one episode, there may be a break, there may be a couple of episodes coming together. I'll try and keep to the two weekly fortnightly episode publishing when I can, but there's some moments where I'm going to put my PhD first. But we will continue and I will make up for them later in the year.

Speaker 1 18:49

I promise We've got some conferences next year that I'm hoping to attend to. So you'll get a wrap up of the VIDM again in May. The Australian National Australian College of Midwives National Conference is in Darwin next year and that's in September, and then the TMAC, or the Trans-Tasman Midwifery Education Consortium, is going to be in October. So I'm hoping to go to both of those conferences and, of course, looking forward to the Call of Abstracts for the ICM in 2026. That will be exciting. I hope to be able to catch up with some people there, do some live episodes there and be able to share and celebrate. So thank you once again for your support for 2024. Four years Unbelievable. When I started this four years ago, never did I dream that it would keep on going. I'm looking forward to exciting things with the LinkedIn PhD Midwife group to support, to encourage, to share. It's global. So check that out and we'll see you in 2025.