Kate Cook

Kate is an experienced nurse and midwife with an accomplished skills base, who's worked for many years  as part of multidisciplinary teams in the UK and overseas.

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Background

Having initially qualified as a nurse, Kate worked in a busy London hospital for two years before training to be a midwife. During her midwifery career, she worked across the whole spectrum and was passionate about caring for women and their families at this crucial time.

Kate has always been fascinated by physiological birth and the conflict between the medical and midwifery models of care. Since coming into teaching two years ago, she's loved imparting my knowledge, expertise and passion for midwifery and nursing to students. Kate always encourages students to question everything, as she believes in developing future practitioners to be agents for change and innovation.

Research interests

• Microbiome and childbirth
• Undisturbed birth
• Promoting normality

Midwives and obstetricians birth discourseI am interested in the emerging science of the microbiome and how it affects our health both in the short and long term. The transmission of the maternal microbiome to the infant at birth is crucial to the health of the infant throughout its life and I am keen to explore in detail how this translates into the ongoing discourse around physiological vs technocratic birth. I would like to explore what midwives, obstetricians and women know about the microbiome and its effects on health in relation to childbirth and in the case of health care professionals, whether this knowledge impacts on their birth practice.

Areas of research supervision

• Supervision for both BSc and MSc projects

Teaching

• Module tutor for Promoting Public Health in Midwifery Care, BSc (Hons) Midwifery
• Teaching on Fundamental Midwifery Skills and Safeguarding: A Collaborative Approach, BSc (Hons) Midwifery
• Personal tutor and group work teaching, BSc Nursing
• Personal tutor, FdSc Assistant Practitioner
• Course lead, MSc Women’s and Children’s Health
• Module leader for Political Power and Policy Drivers (MSc module)

Qualifications

• RN Diploma of Nursing, St Bartholomew’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, London
• RM BSc (Hons) Midwifery, City University, London
• MSc Midwifery, Sheffield University
• PG Cert Teaching and Learning
• NMC Teacher

Selected recent publications

Cook, K. 2018 Birth and the microbiome: what all midwives need to know. The Practising Midwife. 21 (4): 9-13