We wish to thank all the women, families, professionals and other stakeholders who supported this study by responding in interviews, hosting the study observations or sharing their time and views with us. Thanks also particularly to our advisory group members who brought such a wealth of experience and commitment to improving maternity services to our meetings. Their ideas and discussions contributed greatly to the analysis.
This report was written by the authors on behalf of all the study co-investigators.
Co-investigator group members were: Sarah Beake – King’s College, London, UK, and Imperial College Health Care NHS Trust, London, UK; Susan Bewley – King’s College, London, UK and Guy’s and St. Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; Peter Brocklehurst – University College London, London, UK; Pauline Cooke – Imperial College Health Care NHS Trust, London ,UK; Marie Macdonald – Guy’s and St. Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; Mary Newburn – NCT, UK.
Advisory group members
Dr Narendra Aladangady, Neonatologist, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Research lead for women’s and children’s health.
Sue Allen-Mills, Cambridge Maternity Services Liaison Committee (MSLC) chair, service user member.
Dr Ruth Deery, Professor in Maternal Health, University of the West of Scotland and NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Liz Glenister, Head of Midwifery and Gynaecology, Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, replaced on retirement by Antoinette Walsh, Acting Matron for Postnatal and Antenatal Triage, Community Midwifery.
Barbara Kuypers, Local Supervising Authority Midwifery Officer, NHS West Midlands.
Dr Michele Mohajer, Consultant in fetal and maternal medicine and Lead Obstetrician, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
Dr Mary Stewart, Senior Lecturer in midwifery, King’s College, London.
Janine Stockdale, RCM Research Fellow, RCM.
Dr Suzanne Tyler, Associate Director of Programmes, Maternity and Newborn, NHS South Central.
Hana Xassan, Chair Tower Hamlets MSLC, service user member.
Contributions of authors
Christine McCourt was principal investigator and was involved in the design, conduct, analysis and writing up of this project. She is Professor of Maternal and Child Health at City University, London, UK.
Juliet Rayment was a co-investigator and was involved in the design, conduct, analysis and writing up of this project. She was a full-time research associate for this project, based at City University, London, UK.
Susanna Rance was a co-investigator and was involved in the design, conduct, analysis and writing up of this project. She was a full-time research associate for this project, based at King’s College, London, UK.
Jane Sandall was a co-investigator and was involved in the design, conduct, analysis and writing up of this project. She is Professor of Social Science and Women’s Health at King’s College, London, UK.
Disclaimers
This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HS&DR programme or the Department of Health. If there are verbatim quotations included in this publication the views and opinions expressed by the interviewees are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HS&DR programme or the Department of Health.
