Who are we?

Ethel Burns MSc, PG Dip, RM, RGN.

Research Midwife Lecturer, School of Health and Social Care, Oxford Brookes University and practising midwife. Since 1992, I have experience of consultancy work on maternity care projects in Russia, Nagorno Karabakh and Vietnam. This work has utilised my clinical, managerial and educational skills in a variety of care settings ranging from medical and midwifery schools, acute care hospitals, district and rural maternity centres, to accompanying home birth midwives in their work.

Kathy Mellor BSc, RSCN Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

I have 25 years experience in neonatal care, having spent most of these years at The Hammersmith Hospital in London. I also have experience of consultancy work in neonatal care to neonatologists, paediatricians and nurses in Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Russia. This work has included clinical and educational skills in acute and rural centres where the lack of education and facilities has severely compromised the care of sick and low birthweight babies.

Frances Barnsley, RM, RGN, DN.

I have been a midwife for over 40 years, most of this time working and managing a freestanding midwifery led Birth Centre. This has given me vast experience in caring for women in the community care setting. I have also mentored and taught many midwifery students in the art and science of pregnancy, normal birth and postnatal care. My skills have proved to be transferable to the project that Maaike Carter and I have been doing in Mongolia.

Maaike Carter, BSc, BA, PGCE, RM.

I have been a practising midwife since 2002, and have worked in both hospital and community settings.  I have also been a specialist midwife in teenage pregnancy with a strong focus on education for health and parenthood.  Since 2008 I have been involved in a midwifery education project in Mongolia - consulting on, developing and delivering a variety of educational tools in a range of settings such as large acute hospitals, midwifery schools and isolated rural units. Frances and I also work alongside doctors and midwives in the clinical environment to gain a fuller understanding of the healthcare settings and to help bring theory into practice.