We are currently experiencing issues with i-learn which may affect your log in. Please check back again soon for updates.

London midwife wins prestigious award after ‘global success’ of study aids

22 May, 2023

2 minutes read

A student midwife, working at London South Bank University has won the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) prestigious Student Midwife Travel award, for producing a series of animated posters to help her peers study. Rachel Brackpool, who is neurodiverse, began producing the animations during her first year at university when she realised she needed to find more effective ways of learning.

The animations have had global success. She initially just shared them with her classmates. But, after seeing how helpful the animations were, Rachel began making these available to other health care students online and worldwide. To date she has sold over 4000 animated drawings. The animations range from topics such as anatomy and physiology, to the mechanisms and physiology of labour and many more subjects. Her work is used by both students and teachers alike.

At the award ceremony in London on 19 May, commenting on Rachels’ innovation the RCM’s Chief Executive, Gill Walton said: “Rachel has all the personal and professional qualities which are befitting of a midwife: talent, dedication and the willing ness to go the extra mile to help others. Her animations have become a global success and used by thousands across the world to help them qualify as midwives. Her journey to become a midwife is a fantastic example of the phrase ‘if at first you don’t succeed’. Rachel applied to study midwifery twice. Taking on board the feedback, she pursued her dream by gaining more life experience and eventually won a place at her first choice university. From there she has never looked back and is now using her experience to help others succeed. Huge congratulations Rachel.”

Commenting on the award, Professor Louise Barriball, Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the university, said: “Rachel is a fantastic example to other students across LSBU and midwifery and has gone out of her way to enhance other’s university experience. Having a community where students can discuss the problems they’re facing and work together to overcome these is incredibly important, particularly when placements, workloads or everyday life can sometimes seem overwhelming.”

On being presented with her award Rachel discussed her work, saying: “I remember thinking, I’m not the only one that’s going to be struggling like this and the way lectures are done isn’t going to work for everyone. So by breaking it down, making it really visual, it got me through university. And now it’s helping all healthcare professionals and it’s gone global and I never thought I’d be able to do that.”

Media releases, News

RCM urges members in Wales to have their say on pay award

2 minutes read

23 September, 2024

Blog

Using guidelines and evidence to support women to make fully informed choices

By Rachel Drain

3 minutes read

23 September, 2024

Cookie options

Some of these cookies are necessary to make the site work. We’d also like to use optional cookies to help improve your experience on the site. You can manage your optional cookie preferences below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences. Your preferences can be changed at any time.
For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy

Necessary Cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.

Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used to collect and report information on how our website is used. This helps us to improve the website based on the needs and behaviour of our visitors.

Marketing Cookies

We use marketing cookies to help us improve the relevancy of advertising campaigns you receive.

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer

Royal College of Midwives uses cookies for website functionality purposes. For more information, please review our privacy notice or review the settings tab.