Grace Edwards PhD

In 1974 I commenced my nurse training and quickly realised that my heart lay in midwifery. I qualified as a midwife in 1978 working as a hospital midwife and a community midwife for 12 years during which time I completed the Advanced Diploma of Midwifery and the Certificate in Education. I took up post as a midwife teacher in 1988 and completed a Masters in Education. In 1993 I was appointed Regional Co-ordinator for CESDI (the Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy), a post I held until 2002. During this time I completed a PhD on Peoples Perceptions of Healthy Pregnancy.

In 2002 I was employed as one of the first Consultant Midwives, specialising in Public Health in Liverpool UK working around all aspects of deprivation and inequalities that affect pregnant women and their families and accepted a joint appointment as Principal Lecturer in midwifery research at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) UK. In 2005 I was appointed as national midwifery assessor for the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health for maternal mortality. Since 2008 I have worked in the UAE, firstly as the Midwifery Research and Development Specialist at Al Wasl Hospital (now Latifa Hospital) in Dubai and since January 2011 as Assistant Director of Nursing and Midwifery with responsibility for leading the first 18 month midwifery education programme and coordinating research trials at the Corniche hospital in Abu Dhabi. In 2012 I was appointed to the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Childbirth.