William Harvey Building
0845 196 4692
louise.jenkins@anglia.ac.uk

Qualifications & Memberships

• MSc Midwifery
• BSc (Hons) Midwifery
• Postgraduate Diploma Learning & Teaching
• NMC Registered Teacher
• Newborn Life Support Provider Course
• Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics Provider Course
• Registered Midwife
• Registered Nurse (lapsed)

• Member of the Royal College of Midwives
• Committee Member of De Partu www.departu.org.uk
• Member of the Doctoral Midwifery Society
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Courses

• Module Leader 'Essence of Midwifery Practice'
• Module Leader 'Facilitating Complex Birth'

• Personal Tutor
• Link Lecturer Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• BSc & MSc major project supervisor

Outline of Career

Louise qualified as a midwife in 1997 from City University, and worked in a variety of midwifery roles. She joined Anglia Ruskin University in March 2005 and has been the module leader for a number of modules in Midwifery, including Reproductive Public Health and modules that cover obstetric and medical complexities and emergencies in childbirth, at both Undergraduate and Masters level. She has also developed two online learning modules on 'Substance Misusing Parents' and 'Antenatal and Newborn Screening'. Louise is particularly interested in the promotion of normal birth for women with complex needs, and the impact of interventions on childbirth.

Between 2010 and 2012 Louise was seconded to the Postgraduate Medical Institute and was the Pathway Lead for Maternity for the North East & North Central London and Essex (NECLES) Health Innovation & Education Cluster (HIEC) www.necles.org.uk. This organisation aimed to diffuse innovation and best practice across the NECLES HIEC area, to improve care for women, their babies and families. A key work stream was to contribute to the reduction of Caesarean Section rates.

Louise was awarded a university sabbatical in semester 2 of the 2011/12 academic year to facilitate writing up her PhD thesis. She returned to the midwifery teaching team in September 2012, and currently leads the introductory module 'Essence of Midwifery Practice'.

Research Interest

Louise was part of a successful team that was awarded a grant by the Health Foundation under the 'Closing the Gap' scheme for the M(ums)Power project. This project aims to improve antenatal care by changing the relationship between women and clinicians.

Louise's PhD is registered with the University of Leeds under an AHRC studentship, and is a collaborative doctoral award with the Thackray Museum. Her research is examining at the vectis (a midwifery instrument rather like one blade of a forceps, which was used as an alternative to the forceps) and examines the competing and conflicting relationship with the forceps. Questions for consideration include why the forceps became the dominant technology in assisting at obstructed births, while the vectis disappeared from the history books. She is due to complete her PhD by January 2014.

Selected Publications

Jenkins, L. (2012). Session Chair. Retelling familiar tales of pregnancy and birth. Oxford, UK.

Allotey, J., Nuttall, A., Lynch, M., Mander, R., Reid, L., Allison, J., et al. (2012, June). Mothers and midwives, 1952 - 2012. MIDIRS, pp. 143 - 152.

Jenkins, L. (2011). Optimising Opportunities for Normal Birth. Anglia Ruskin University. Chelmsford, UK.

Jenkins, L. (2010). The use of the vectis in midwifery practice. De Partu and United Kingdom Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery(UKCHNM) first history of childbirth Colloquium. Manchester, UK.

Jenkins, L. (2010). Testing for Down's Syndrome in Pregnancy. Disability, Pregnancy and Parenthood International, Spring 2010.

MacDonald, S. J. (2008). Chaper 15: Newborn Screening and immunization. In L. Davies, & S. MacDonald, Examination of the Newborn and Neonatal Health (pp. 253-269). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier.