Maternity & Midwifery Forum
Bradford Maternity & Midwifery Festival 2026

Bradford Maternity & Midwifery Festival 2026

Wednesday 24 June 2026
Cedar Court Hotel, Mayo Avenue, Rooley Lane, Bradford, BD5 8HW

 

Agenda

The programme is under development and subject to change.

8.30

Visit the exhibition and enter the competition

09.00 – 09.25: Skills Workshop Exhibition

Knitting and crochet for wellbeing

Crafting for all with midwife, experienced HE

teacher and lifelong knitter, Amanda

Hutcherson.

 

Wool and needles supplied

09.00 – 09.25: Skills Workshop

PLENARY & STREAM A:

STREAM B: 93:20 East (1st Floor)            STREAM C: 93:20 West (1st Floor)

9.30

Chair’s opening remarks

Sue Macdonald, Maternity and Midwifery Festival Programme Curator and Editor, Mayes Midwifery

9.40

Keynote address

Speaker to be announced

10.00

Back to basics

Molly O’Brien, Consultant Midwife, Educator & Specialist in Biomechanics for Birth

10.20

Newly qualified but nowhere to go: rethinking how we support and retain midwives at the start of their careers

Nicola Witcombe, Independent Midwife and T Level Nursing Educator, Harlow College; Founder, Mobile Midwives CIC

10.40

Q & A

10.55 – 11.40 BREAK, MEET THE EXPERTS TALKS, NETWORKING AND EXHIBITION VIEWING

11.00 – 11.15 MEET THE EXPERT – Being a midwife: tips to thrive

Come and hear experiences and advice on how to flourish as a midwife. With Dr Anna Byrom, Co-

Director, All4Maternity

11.40

Title:TBC

Ruth Weston, Mother, Birth Activist, Speaker, Author of Born Stroppy: Make Change Happen

12.00

Attitude values and beliefs of global majority midwives and why they remain

Wendy Ainsworth, Senior Lecturer, University of Greenwich

12.20

Q & A

12.35

MIDWIFERY & MATERNITY TRAILBLAZER AWARDS

12.50 – 14.00 LUNCH, MEET THE EXPERT TALKS, NETWORKING AND EXHIBITION VIEWING

13.00 – 13.15 MEET THE EXPERT – Your immunisation questions answered

UKHSA

13.30 – 13.45 MEET THE EXPERT – Making the move to digital – maternity resources for universities and trusts

Dr Anna Byrom, Co-Director, All4Maternity and Neil Stewart, Editorial Director, MATFLIX/ Maternity & Midwifery Forum

Questions from the audience follow each presentation

14.00 – 14.30

Stream A1

Chair: Sue Macdonald

Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy – ICP CPD for the MDT

Sarah Flower, Assistant Professor in Midwifery, University of Bradford

Stream B1: Midwifery Education Masterclass

Chair:

Midwifery education Focus Nicky Clark, Freelance Midwife Educationalist

Stream C1: Women & Infant Health

Chair:

Women’s Health Strategy

14.35 – 15.05

Stream A2

The power of love and the art of midwifery

Elisabeth Ubbe, award-winning photographer, and registered nurse midwife

Stream C2: Women & Infant Health

Transforming preterm birth education through narrative: a proposed evaluation of a patient-informed learning resource on clinical knowledge and confidence

Dede Thorpe, Preterm Birth Specialist Midwife, East and North Hertfordshire

15.05 – 15.25 BREAK, FINAL EXHIBITION VIEWING, PRIZES AND NETWORKING

15.25 – 15.55

Stream A3 Improving care

Chair: Sue Macdonald

Moxibustion for breech presentation: midwives’ role and responsibilities

Dr Denise Tiran, CEO/ Education Director, Expectancy

Stream B3: Student Voices Symposium

Chair:

Understanding women’s experience of postnatal care in prison

Nisha Nadeem, Student Midwife, University of Bradford

How do pregnant women in the UK conceptualise and perceive Perinatal Genomic Screening, and what factors influence decision-making?

Jessica Smithson, Student Midwife, University of Bradford

Hidden trauma: the maternity care experiences of asylum-seeking women in the UK

Fiona Walker, Student Midwife, University of Bradford

Creating a peer-led student support network for student midwives

Jessica Smithson, Student Midwife, University of Bradford

Stream C3: IT in education and practice

Chair:

How paper to digital improves patient safety: development of the electronic version of the national maternity notes

Emily Butler, Midwifery Lead, Perinatal Institute

16.00 – 16.30

Stream A4: Research and practice

The journey to an NIHR Predoctoral Award: midwifery, academia and the route to research

Emily Paget, Assistant Professor in Midwifery, University of Bradford

Stream C4: Innovations in teaching and assessment

Promoting student midwife autonomy and assessment

Yetunde Akinnuoye, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, University of East London

16.30 Festival closes