Debbie Johnson

Debbie worked as a community midwife for many years in and around Bristol before starting her research career on a study introducing a “hands-off” breastfeeding technique helping midwives teach mothers positioning and attachment. Much of her subsequent research has focused upon infant feeding, more recently as part of the team evaluating a peer support infant feeding intervention, the ABA-feed study. Over the years she has developed experience as a qualitative researcher and extended her research interest into perinatal mental health (PMH) with studies including a feasibility RCT to explore a new type of PMH support (the ADAGIO study) and the ‘Breaking Barriers’ study which sought to identify the barriers Black and South Asian women experience in accessing PMH support in the Bristol area. This study led to her undertaking the groundbreaking ‘Black Maternity Matters’ training and she is still working to help eliminate disparities in local community PMH services.