welcome
Education and Research conference 2026
The power of education and research: strengthening the midwifery community
Join us as we shine a spotlight on the vital contributions of midwives, student midwives, and maternity support workers (MSWs)/maternity care assistants (MCAs) who are driving excellence in education and research.
The RCMÂ education and research conference is back for 2026 at the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park 18-19 March 2026.Â
Education and research are the foundation of safe, evidence-based practice and the heartbeat of a strong, connected midwifery community. These two pillars don’t just inform what we do, they inspire innovation, strengthen collaboration, and ensure that women and families across the UK receive the very best care. By investing in these areas, we empower professionals to lead change, share knowledge, and champion wellbeing at every stage of the maternity journey.
programme
Stream one | Stream two | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time | Session title | Resources | Research priority | Session title | Resources | Research priority | |
8:30 – 9:15 | Registration and networking | ||||||
9:15 – 9:30 | Welcome | ||||||
9:30 – 10:00 | Transforming maternity care through education and research: RCM Award Winners. Sara Balmforth Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, Laura Atherton Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust and Emily Bates UEA | MIDIRS Search Packs: M24 Research: the value of; M26 Student midwives
i-learn module: One chance to get it right: bereavement care | |||||
10:00 – 10:40 | Zepherina Veitch Lecture,  Every Mother, Every Baby Matters: Midwifery Research Driving Health Equity, Professor Hora Soltani MBE | MIDIRS Search Pack: M24 Research: the value of.
i-learn module: Health inequalities: the power of maternity care | |||||
10:40 – 11:00 | Break, posters & exhibition | Break, posters & exhibition | |||||
11:10 – 11:50 | From theory to practice: Implementing decolonised midwifery curricula.
Afshan Ali, Susan Holbourn, University of Teesside and Jamie Morris, NHS Wales Performance and Improvement | MIDIRS Search Packs: M96 Institutional racism; M4 Pre-registration education.
i-learn module: Women with sickle cell | Priority 1 | Participation panel – Holly Lovell King’s College London, Adey Pinheiro-Aina and Makini Jones PROMISE study PPI group, Aimee Grant Swansea University. | Priority 3 | ||
11:50 – 12:20 | NMC practice learning review.
Dr Jacqui Williams, Julie Bliss NMC, Dr Janine Stockdale, Queens University Belfast and Dr Lucie Warren Cardiff University | i-learn module: Revalidation: an introduction | Priority 9 | Poster presentations
1. A Unique Approach to Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy. Louise Barton, Bournemouth University
2. Guideline-Aligned Preeclampsia Antenatal Care in Jordan: A Mixed-Methods Study. Shrouq S. Alsaraireh, Queen’s University Belfast
3. A phenomenological pilot study exploring the impact of the medicalisation of childbirth for final year students through a feminist lens. Carla Jayne Avery, Buckinghamshire New University/University of Staffordshire
4. Childbearing women’s perspectives and experiences of antenatal education in Saudi Arabia. Munirah Alatawi, University of Leeds
| Priority 5 | ||
12:20 – 13:20 | Lunch, posters & exhibition | Lunch, posters & exhibition | |||||
13:20 – 14:00 | Abstracts:
1. Decolonising Interventions in Midwifery Education. Sheridan Thomas
2. Cultivating Resilience: Embedding PMA Days to Empower Midwifery Students – Zoi Vardavaki & Ariadna Sole De La Llera
| MIDIRS Search Packs: M96 Institutional racism; M4 Pre-registration education; M91 Coping and resilience in midwifery | Abstracts:
1. Scottish student midwives’ views on continuity of midwifery carer research. Holly Jenkins
2. Student midwives’ exposure to midwifery practice that supports physiological birth. Tomasina Stacey
| MIDIRS Search Packs: M3 Continuity of care; MS52 Physiological labour and birth; M26 Student midwives | |||
14:05 – 14:45 | Mapping the future: Career development in maternity care.
Dr Heather Bower, Caitlin Wilson, RCM Sophie Black, Chester University and Katherine Robinson, South Eastern Trust. | MIDIRS Search Packs: M5 Continuing professional development (CPD).
i-learn module: Exploring a career as a midwife or MSW researcher | Priority 9 | Creating Autism-affirming maternity care. Aimee Grant Swansea University | MIDIRS Search Packs: PN156 Autism; M101 Neurodiversity in midwifery.
i-learn module: Autism and pregnancy | Priority 10 | |
14:45 – 15:15 | Break, posters & exhibition | Break, posters & exhibition | |||||
15:15 – 15:50 | Abstracts:
1. Bringing Maternity Care Training to Life Through Immersive Storytelling. Lisa Jeffery
2. Shifrah UK: towards Jewish cultural safety in maternity care. Laura Godfrey-Isaacs and Jessica Falk Perlman | MIDIRS Search Packs: M36 Learning and teaching methods | Abstracts:
1. Resourcing Compassion: Strengthening Midwives’ Wellbeing During Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Mental Health Care. Dr Amanda Firth
2. Improving Representation in Maternity Research: The REPRESENT Study. Holly Lovell
| MIDIRS Search Packs: MS48 Refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people.
i-learn module: Understanding asylum seekers and refugees | |||
15:55 – 16:35 | Transforming maternity training through Mobile, AI, and VR.
Dr Andrew Darby-Smith & Dr Aggie Bebbington, Upskill.Health, Sophie Bohacs, Francesca Crane, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, Jessica Weeks and Stephanie Wells, Coventry & Warwickshire MNVP | MIDIRS Search Packs: M102 Artificial intelligence in midwifery and obstetrics; M88 Simulation-based training | Priority 23 | Writing for funding: turning strong ideas into funded projects. Jo Cull Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust | MIDIRS Search Pack: M79 Writing for publication.
i-learn module: An introduction to clinical research in the NHS | Priority 9 | |
16:40 – 17:10 | Small research awards & Fellows | ||||||
17:15 – 18:00 | Drinks reception (sponsored by MIDIRS) |
Stream one | Stream two | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time | Session title | Resources | Research priority | Session title | Resources | Research priority | |
8:30 – 9:00 | Registration, networking and posters | ||||||
9:00 – 9:40 | Abstracts:
1.Interpreting Safety: Evaluating a CPD Course for Multilingual Healthcare Professionals. Benash Nazmeen
2.Antenatal education in community languages: a pilot across Southeast London Octavia Wiseman
| MIDIRS Search Packs: MS75 Culturally sensitive maternity care; M5 Continuing professional development (CPD) | Abstracts:
1.Exploring barriers and facilitators of PMTCT informed choice in Brazil. Alejandra Perez Avila
2. Emotional wellbeing and retention of newly qualified midwives. Emma Clark
| MIDIRS Search Packs: MS32 Informed choice; M97 Newly qualified midwives.
i-learn module Midwifery continuity of carer implementation. | |||
9:45 – 10:15 | The challenges of midwifery education in 2025.
Fiona Gibb and Dr Heather Bower, RCM | MIDIRS Search Packs :M4 Pre-registration education | Priority 9 | Making numbers meaningful: building confidence in reading quantitative research. Prof Yemisi Takwoingi, University of Birmingham | MIDIRS Search Packs: M60 Research: statistical methods.
i-learn module: Embedding clinical research into practice | Priority 9 | |
10:15 – 10:45 | Break, posters & exhibition | Break, posters & exhibition | |||||
10:45 – 11:25 | Have we cracked it? Continuity and partnership working in student supervision and assessment in practice.
Dr Lucie Warren, Cardiff University, Hannah Hall , Aneurin Bevan UHB & Kate Shinkwin Cardiff & Vale UHB | Priority 9 | Poster presentations
1. Embedding Good Clinical Practice into Midwifery Education. Edel Clare, University of Bedfordshire
2. A survey assessing midwifery knowledge and experience of congenital cytomegalovirus. Alice Pooley, Imperial College London
3. Women’s decisions on prescribed psychiatric medication use during pregnancy. Jessica Correia
| ||||
11:30 – 12:00 | Mental health, wellbeing and students | i-learn module: RCM Student essentials | Priority 15 | Panel session re creative methods.
Laura Abbott University of Hertfordshire, Marie-Clare Balaam University of Lancashire and Emily Underwood-Lee University of South Wales | Priority 3 | ||
12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch, posters & exhibition | Lunch, posters & exhibition | |||||
13:00 – 13:40 | Abstracts:
1. Midwifery educators’ perceptions and readiness for integrating generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in teaching and learning. An exploratory case study. Matt Smith
2. Undergraduate midwifery students’ experiences of directed and non-directed personal study time. Siân Pierce Roberts
| MIDIRS Search Packs: M102 Artifical intelligence in midwifery and obstetrics; M26 Student midwives
i-learn module: RCM Student essentials | Abstracts:
1. Embedding Good Clinical Practice into Midwifery Education Edel Clare
2. Infant feeding in the context of severe mental illness. Natasha Baker
| MIDIRS Search Packs: PN202 Perinatal mental health: general references and outcomes.
i-learn module: A companion to the Maternity Disadvantage Assessment Tool MatDAT | |||
13:45 – 14:15 | Immersive innovation: Virtual reality and simulation in midwifery education. Joanne Davies, Swansea University and Janine Stockdale, Queen’s University Belfast | MIDIRS Search Packs: M88 Simulation-based training | Priority 15 | Validation of the City Birth Trauma Scale to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms in maternity staff. Alice McInnes, NHS Tayside | MIDIRS Search Pack:M98 Psychological safety | Priority 9 | |
14:15 – 14:45 | Break, posters & exhibition | Break, posters & exhibition | |||||
14:45 – 15:15 | Genomics in maternity care: upskilling midwives for a changing healthcare landscape. Ed Miller, NHS England | MIDIRS Search Pack: P203 Genomics.
i-learn module: Genetics and genomics for midwifery practice | Priority 3 | Understanding the impact of immigration status on maternal and child health.
Hannah Rayment-Jones & Zenab Barry King’s College London | MIDIRS Search Pack: MS48 Refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people.
i-learn module: Understanding asylum seekers and refugees | Priority 1 | |
15:20 – 16:00 | Who Defines Midwifery? Gender, Power, and the Stories We Tell About Education and Practice. Sam Chenery-Morris and Jo Divers, University of Suffolk | MIDIRS Search Pack: M77 Leadership | Priority 9 | Shifting birth spaces: why midwifery led units are losing ground.
Dr. Rachel Rowe, UK Midwifery Study System
| MIDIRS Search Pack: M28 Midwife led care.
I-learn module: Promoting midwife led care | Priority 21 | |
exhibitors
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speakers
posters
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