Ep 108 Liz McNeill and 5th anniversary wrap up

Ep 108 (http://ibit.ly/Re5V) Liz McNeill and the 5th anniversary wrap up

#PhDMidwives #research #midwifery #doctoralstudies #supportnetwork #cheersquad #celebrations #globalmidwifery #phdlife #profdoc #DNP #DMP

Five years on, the numbers tell a hopeful story—119 countries tuned in—but the real win is what listeners do with the ideas. We revisit a year of fiercely practical conversations that move from thriving after burnout to the politics of consent, from water birth service design to the realities of dual-qualified pathways, and from oxytocin research to the tools that measure and mend birth trauma. Along the way we challenge how naming shapes midwifery’s visibility in research and policy, and we keep circling a core truth: informed choice isn’t a slogan, it’s practice.

We also look ahead with purpose. I share my PhD submission timeline, a speaking-and-meetup tour across England, Scotland, Denmark, and the ICM conference in Lisbon. Most importantly, I’m calling in clinical doctoral midwives—PhDs, professional doctorates, DNPs—whose bedside perspective keeps scholarship honest and useful. If you’re 12 months post-completion or working toward it, your voice belongs here.

To widen the circle, we’re considering launching “Spotlight On,” a new stream for trailblazers shaping midwifery and women’s health outside formal doctorates: service redesigners, community advocates, educators, and policy shifters. Expect focused, story-rich chats that you can translate into practice the next day. If an episode sparks a better question with a woman in your care, or gives you language to push for change in your unit, the mission is working.

If this resonates, help the midwifery voice carry further: follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a rating with one guest you want to hear next. Your suggestions shape the next hundred conversations.

Transcript

VIDM And Calls For Abstracts

Year-In-Review: Guests And Themes

Episode 100 And Key Ideas

Global Practice, Policy, And Equity

Tech, Choice, And Workforce Sustainability

Looking Ahead: PhD Submission And Travel

Community Meetups And Lego In Education

Spotlight On: New Stream Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hello and welcome to I cannot believe it the fifth anniversary wrap-up of Through the Pinard. It has been an absolute cork of a year, and next year is going to not just double down, it's gonna probably triple and quadruple down. So I had a quick look at last year's transcript and saw that the podcast finished the year being heard in 88 countries. Well, this year we have been heard in 119 countries, which blows my mind. I was hoping we could break the 100, crack the ton, um, and we're 119 countries, and so that's quite amazing. And only 22 of those countries are single listens, which means people have got something out of more than one episode, which is ultimately the dream, because even one episode can change somebody's practice, and that's what we don't know. We don't have a measure of what people are taking away from the episodes that they do hear, and because you can pick in and pick out, it is the information that people want to read, and to me, that's just what makes it so special. Um, we had two conference wrap-ups, so that was the VIDM, the virtual international day of the midwife, on May 5th, as usual, and abstracts are open now for presentations and for posters. So go to vidm.org. The podcast is a very proud sponsor of that 24-hour free virtual midwifery conference. So if you are doing something in your area that is making your practice better, if you are finding solutions, you don't have to be doing a formal study, it can be anything from anywhere, then have a look and it's about inequity. So have a look at what the theme is. We also had 18 other episodes, and from 16 guests, we had two double episodes this year. Um, I'm not going to go through in much detail, but we will go through and have a quick look at who those episodes were from. So we started in February with Virginia Schultz on Thriving After Burnout and Reshaping Maternal Health Education. And then we had a two-parter with Anne's Lubin, a midwife from Switzerland, um, who's worked in a lot of countries, um, and she looked from starting her journey from animal obstetrics to midwifery and then looking at midwifery's impact and building educational communities. And she's part of a group looking at European midwifery PhD experiences that I've been very fortunate to be a part of, and that's been quite fascinating. In March, we then finished March with talking to Hannah Dalen on her path of feminist midwife championing change and sustainable research future. Uh, we then in April heard from Linda Sweet and through her journey through birth breastfeeding and beyond. And she was very gracious early on in the podcast history and did an episode as with her um assistant editor hat on about getting on publications as well. So it was great to have her back and talk about her personal journey. Um, then we kind of went over the waves and over the ditch, the big ditch, actually further beyond the ditch, to Elise Ericsson and how oxytocin shapes our birth experiences trying to predict um and trying to predict birth, and they've got some fascinating research happening there that could be really quite revolutionary in the next few years, and it's exciting to watch up. Um then we had the May wrap-up of the VIDM that might be a little bit delayed next year, and I'll tell you why shortly. Then we had um Corin Um Adney, um Indonesian leader, midwifery leader, um, who's looked at navigating her midwifery journey from rural Indonesia to being an emerging global leader and very much different environment. We then had another two-parter with Carolyn Hollands Martin talking about birth trauma, um, psychology, but also looking at the birth satisfaction scale, which she helped co-create. In finished July with Karen Yates on how dual qualified and rural midwives demands different skills but offer unique experiences. So, whilst we have in several countries pathways to become midwives without becoming nurses, in many, many countries, you still need to be a nurse first, and then midwifery is a subsequent qualification. So, whilst we are promoting and we do know direct entry midwife midwifery is fantastic, um, it's still looking at those dual-qualified midwives that are going to be around in a lot of countries. And then in August, we hit 100 episodes. Well, technically 101 because one isn't numbered early on. But episode number 100 was Anna Medalie and talking about her work around birth choices. And I love the phrase that no is a complete sentence. We so often feel as though we need to explain more than no, but no is it. And then we spoke to came back to Australia and spoke to Deborah Davis on navigating hospitals, home births, and academic journeys. And then back over talking to Erin George on navigating birth settings and maternal health in Haiti and in the US. And we know that there's a lot of change in healthcare over there that is making the environment, the healthcare environment, and midwifery maternity care, women's health issues, um, that whole environment is just getting kind of extremely more stressful than a lot of people's, but also in a lot of countries with a lot of things happening as well. In October, we spoke to Christine Caitlin on choosing, Catelyn, sorry, on choosing home birth workforce sustainability at interdisciplinary advantages. Um, and then we went back to the UK and spoke to John Pendleton on rethinking midwifery and gender power and care. And so that was kind of had come just after a time of challenging people to rethink midwifery and pneumonia. No, I've said that wrong. Naming, how we name things. So there's a lot of conversations happening in a lot of parts of the world, um, as well as looking at some of the other issues in the world as well. And then we will spoke to Deborah Fox on water births in Singapore and how she set up the first water births clinic in Singapore, intrapartum transfers and reimagined technology midwifery. So, not all technology is bad technology, but how do we use it so that we're still respecting the holistic care that we can do? Um, and then Olivia Turney on regional practice, continuity of care learning, and national policy. So she's now the midwifery advisor, chief midwifery advisor to the chief nursing and midwifery um officer in Australia. So looking at where midwives can go, and there it is looking at midwives in all areas, um, not just in clinical but beyond that as well. And then looking at the final guest for this year was Amanda Firth on maternity inequities, forced migration, and the need for increasing interpreters. We have so much data showing that English second language, black and Asian minorities suffer in our healthcare system, and we can do far better in that. So it's been a really interesting year with lots of variety to listen to. Um, I was gonna do a big breakdown on the whole podcast, but I'm gonna kind of keep that for my ICM presentation. So once that presentation is over, I might do a little breakdown or save that for next year's end of year. So, what's gonna be happening now? So, plans for next year is for the podcast. In the first quarter of next year, so hopefully before I disappear in May, I am hoping to put my own, submit my own PhD, which is really cool. And that's actually looking at some of the Australian and UK midwives from this podcast who have done PhDs, and so that's gonna be, I'm really loving the writing of that and what have kind of come out. My head's fully in theory kind of interpretation and integration at the moment. Um, but then I'm gonna go on a trip. So my post-PHD trip for me, and I keep calling it my speaking tour before the ICM. So I'm going to be, I've already arranged to catch up with some of the people that I've met through PhD Midwives and some of the people I've had connections with through doing PhDs with in the midwifery world, and going to chat to some of their staff, chat to some of their students, and chat to basically anyone who wants to catch up with me about PhDs, about the community that we're in to support each other. If you are finished and you want to celebrate and I'm in the area, then let's meet up and I'll celebrate with you. So I'm going to be in England. I'm going to be in Scotland. I'm going to take a car. And so if anyone is in the Glencoe area or especially the Isle of Skye, I'm going to be spending some time over that side in the Highlands before coming back down, hopefully through Dundee and into Edinburgh. I'm going to take a long weekend trip over to Denmark and Copenhagen. And of course, I'm going to take a sneaky kind of trip off to Lego House. I want to talk to some people about using Lego in education. Obviously, published a paper in that earlier, and love the idea of where we can use it. And then coming back down to England and to London and hopefully kind of chatting with the Royal College of Midwives. Hopefully, we can arrange something where I can catch up with some people there as well. And then some touristy things for me that are just pure tourist fun but not necessarily related to midwifery. And so then also going to go to the ICM and talk about the podcast, but about the breakdown of some of the people who and how they've got into pathways into midwifery PhDs, where they were working. So there'll be an assortment of breakout for that. Coming back after ICM, apart from sleeping for a while and then jumping straight back into teaching. So my wish list for next year is in the second half of next year, in particular, when I won't be spending my time writing my PhD because it will be done. I want to crank up and refresh the PhD Midwives community. And that's going to be becoming more active on LinkedIn. And you can just find us on PhD Midwives on LinkedIn. Possibly create an Instagram page because that's evidently where all the young folk are. And obviously keep on with the recordings. I'm hoping to catch some people in my travels and do some recording of episodes. So there may be some live episodes that kind of come out and they may be a little bit shorter because I might just be grabbing people and asking some slightly different questions. So we're going to do that. I would also love to get people to send me connections of clinical doctoral midwives. So obviously, I've got a lot of links in academia and in research, but I'd love to know those midwives that are working in the clinical area that have got any type of doctoral. So PhDs, prof docs, DNPs. Um, I'd really like to kind of get some more of those voices in as well. And I'm thinking for next year, and it could be that this starts to happen when I'm traveling before ICM, is running a new stream called Spotlight On, where I have possibly more unstructured chats with people who are not necessarily doing doctoral qualifications, but are doing some amazing trial blazing stuff or things that are really interesting for midwives in the midwifery and women's health area. I've been approached by um a few people by email that have wanted to have a chat on the podcast, and because my head's been too busy into work and PhD, I haven't had the chance to explore them and do my due diligence. But I'm wanting to provide people um I want to just explore some other people because there's people that are doing some amazing things that have got impacts on us, but is not related to the doctoral thing. So that's why I'm thinking of a new stream called Spotlight On. Um, and I may even get in a thinking of maybe getting in a co-host for some of that as well because I can't cover all the areas. So that's kind of some of the plans for next year. I'm also open to people emailing me, um connecting me on LinkedIn, in wherever on the socials that you've got me, and suggesting names of people. So ideally, for people who have done any type of doctoral qualifications, so any of the levels, um, 12 months after they've completed is ideal for me. If they have done it earlier, then send me their details and I'll add them to the list to contact within 12 months. The twelve the post-12 months is really important because I've found that people need time to stop, they need time to recover from the process, but they also need time to find their feet for where they're going because not everyone has a clear path to where they're going following submission, conferral, and then graduation. So wanting to have that post-12 month period. So, yeah, send me your name, send me your requests if you've got any people you would like to hear that you haven't heard from. Go through that. I'm also going to approach some people that I spoke to really early on, and I may do this in early part of 2026. So, right back at the very beginning, I spoke to some people who were still doing their PhDs at the time and hadn't actually completed, but have subsequently completed. So the very early structure of the interviews were a little bit different. So I might go, I'm going to plan to go back and chat to them if they're willing, in a more traditional chatting, so they get their chance at sell their whole journey and also the subsequent results of what they found after that. So it has been fabulous talking, and it's been quite interesting when I've been, because I've been using the transcripts and the quotes, when I've kind of been sitting there using quotes from the participants from this podcast who are participants in my PhD. Um, if I've been thinking something, then I've been writing a quote that's been mirroring or giving me the answer. So, and I had somebody else in the last couple of days, I've had a couple of people saying how listening to people from the podcast has helped them in their process when they're kind of flagging a little bit, it helps reignite them, it helps redirection them. And I think that's the fabulous thing about this community and the fact of the virtual community is that we have that opportunity to share those experiences, which, regardless of which level you're on, which area you're working in, which country you're in, it helps to make those pathways less lonely. And doing a PhD, especially externally, especially part-time, can fill a very lonely role because you are it is so demanding on taking your time. You don't have as much opportunity to create a community. Um, and that's the whole reason why PhD Midwives was created, and that's why Esther created it in 2020. Um, and I'm looking forward to hopefully catching up with her next year. But it was about that creating community when you couldn't physically go and see someone, and we have we still have an issue with the visibility of midwifery voices and midwifery voices in research. We are vocal within our own little networks, but when you go beyond that and when you look at the research, midwifery research is still subsumed underneath nursing research. So, to anything that we can do that can increase the midwifery voice, that gets the midwifery voice out and people listening to what we're saying and getting us talking to a lot of other people, then to me that can be only a good thing. So, as we are two days away from the end of 2025, I cannot believe we're at 2025. Still feels like that in the year 2000 wasn't that long ago. Um, I wish you all the best for the last few days. I wish you marvelous, fantastical 2026s. I know there's a lot of stress and horror and trauma around the world at the moment in a variety of different ways. Um, some people are going through it vicariously, other people are going through it firsthand. I wish for peace for everyone in so that people can do their job in safety and so that they can do it to the standard that they wish. And if we keep talking to each other and if we keep supporting each other, then we have a better chance of reaching that in the future. So um happy Hogmany for those who celebrate on New Year's Eve, and I will speak to you in January. We've got some interviews already lined up. Um, there may obviously be a little bit of a lag in the kind of leading up to February, March when I'm getting that final part of my submission and when I'm traveling, but we will kind of definitely make up for it in a bang in the second half of the year. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, share the podcast with people that you want, leave a ranking and let me know who you want to hear from and who you would recommend. Bye.