This week the Maternity and Midwifery Forum’s Northern Festival took place at Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Take a look at the winners from the Northern Maternity and Midwifery Trailblazer Awards Ceremony. The Awards recognised outstanding achievement and commitment to maternity and midwifery services over the past year across the Northern region.
Award Category – Midwife Education Trailblazer
Winner: Sarah Lewis, Lead Midwife for Education, University of Keele
As the Lead Midwife for Education, (LME), Sarah is an exceptional lecturer who consistently facilitates dynamic, innovative student-centred learning and teaching within the BSc (Hons) Midwifery programme. Sarah’s commitment is sustained, and her effectiveness is supported by positive student and colleague feedback, her innovations, supervision, and thorough understanding and application of pedagogy. Sarah utilises her extensive professional midwifery knowledge and experiential learning in her delivery of teaching, assessment and student mentorship in shaping the future midwifery workforce and role modelling for registrants who are embarking on their clinical careers. Sarah was instrumental in mapping the requirements of the new standards to the previous curriculum. Sarah works in close collaboration with external stakeholders, fostering dynamic working partnerships which have also influenced and supported the programme and programme team. Sarah’s level of expertise and professional standing is also evident from her national and scholarly profile. Sarah participates in the LME UK Strategic Group meetings and other panels such as the West Midlands LME Joint Working Partnership, and the Maternity and Neonatal Workforce National and Regional Committees. These national committees allow Sarah to participate in discussions around a variety of issues that affect midwifery education. It also allows Sarah to represent the University at a national level and offer insight into how programmes and innovations have been developed to enhance good practice across all courses in the UK. Sarah has also held various External Examiner roles and has written a book chapter on professional dishonesty for a law textbook and a book review on a neonatal handbook that was designed specifically for the NIPE qualification which further consolidates her national and scholarly profile and her commitment to quality assurance processes across the midwifery sector.
Award Category – Student Midwife Trailblazer Award
Winners: Becky Penfold, Shannon Hope, Laura Parker & Becky Clarkson, Student Midwives, Liverpool John Moores University
Becky Penfold, Shannon Hope, Laura Parker, and Becky Clarkson, student midwives at Liverpool John Moores University, have participated in a creative collaboration to spark conversation around breastfeeding within the Liverpool community. In a project that merged art with midwifery, these students partnered with Fine Art students to explore the physiology, challenges, and social perceptions surrounding breastfeeding within Liverpool.
Each midwifery student was paired with an art student to share knowledge through meaningful dialogue. They discussed the hormonal processes involved, such as the role of prolactin and oxytocin as well as breastfeeding positions and common barriers faced by families. These peer-to-peer conversations served not only to educate but to inspire the creation of four powerful artworks that reflect diverse experiences of infant feeding.
This unique project, co-coordinated by lecturers Clare Maxwell (Midwifery) and Maggie Ayliffe (Fine Art), ran over a six-month period. The final pieces are currently showcased at the LJMU Art Degree Show and are set to rotate between local hospitals and university spaces. The goal is to promote open, inclusive dialogue around breastfeeding to make it more visible, less stigmatised, and better understood.
The project’s impact reaches beyond the student cohort. It invites patients, staff, and the public to reflect on their own perceptions and assumptions, and creates a visually engaging platform for education and awareness. Through this work, Becky, Shannon, Laura, and Becky have demonstrated leadership, creativity, and a deep commitment to improving the breastfeeding journey for families across Liverpool. Their trailblazing approach embodies the spirit of midwifery by advocating for women, embracing collaboration, and thinking beyond the clinical setting to support meaningful, lasting change.
Midwifery Practice Leader Trailblazer Award
Winner: Kirsty Trotter, Practice Development Lead Midwife, South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation Trust
The transition from Student Midwife to registered Midwife is something that should not be underestimated. It is a very overwhelming time in our careers. Kirsty Trotter, our Practice Development Midwife at South Tyneside and Sunderland has been our life raft in the sometimes turbulent waters of Newly qualified life. Kirsty has many aspects to her role, and unable list them all. One is that she is responsible for development of the preceptorship program at STSFT and has inherited all of the new preceptees.
Kirsty is an absolute pleasure to work alongside. She is not only an outstanding Midwife, but also a member of the leadership team that leads by example.
NQM life is challenging and Kirsty has been supportive on many occasions. She is approachable, compassionate, kind but most importantly she is present. She is there, In the clinical environment to provide the support that we need on an individual basis. She is always available to listen to our concerns and help us to make plans to overcome these concerns, reassuring us along the way. Kirsty encourages and helps us to develop in any areas where we feel like we have a gap in knowledge or skill. She does this without making us feel ashamed, thinking that we should have already known how to do this.
In short, Kirsty creates a safe and nurturing environment that encourages us to thrive and not just survive. It is also very clear that she does this because she genuinely cares for each and every one of us. This only enhances the quality of care that we then provide to women and birthing persons in our care.
She has contributed massively to the progression and emotional wellbeing of the NQMs at STSFT. Although being a Midwife is THE best job in the world, it is hard and Kirsty is a massive and essential part of the team that helps to shape us into the happy, well rounded, competent practitioners that we are becoming. We feel very lucky to work with such an amazing, supportive team in the maternity department at STSFT. It is the perfect “village” to help raise the NQMs coming through.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Christine Furber, Associate Professor and Reader, University of Salford
Chrstine qualified as a registered nurse and registered Midwife. Christine is an experienced midwifery educator and researcher who has made a significant contribution to the development of midwifery education and research.
Christine moved to the University of Salford in 2023 as Associate Professor and Reader, having been a Reader and the LME at University of Manchester. Christine has a BSc in Social sciences, an MSc in Public health and health promotion and a PhD. For her PhD Christine explored midwives’ views of their baby feeding role using a qualitative approach. Christine is an expert in qualitative research methods, pedagogy and public health topics, and has disseminated her work globally in publications and conference presentations and is an experienced PhD examiner.
Christine has extensive experience in working with communities that are not well represented in midwifery. To support improving diversity in midwifery, Christine co-wrote an innovative book to promote midwifery as a career that is now used nationwide in schools.
Christine is passionate about midwifery and supporting women, birthing people and families though education. She has mentored many midwives to support their development through higher education and achievement of fellowships and awards. Christine is an experienced and inspirational team leader having led several successful midwifery education teams.
During Covid, Chrstine was the deputy LME lead for England where all four countries, the health boards, NHS England and the NMC came together to drive a unified approach to support and educate student midwives during this difficult period. This collaborative working ensured student midwives were able to remain on their programmes wherever they were studying to facilitate achievement of programme requirements and timely completion.
Lifetime Achievement Award for Research Leadership Excellence
Professor Soo Downe OBE, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Central Lancashire
Soo is a highly committed and passionate midwife with a particular research focus on the nature of, and cultures around, physiological labour and birth. Soo has undertaken research using a wide range of methods, from phenomenology and ethnography to surveys, RCTs, and epidemiological analysis of large data sets. As well as undertaking research, she is a Professor of Midwifery Studies and teaches on both undergraduate and postgraduate research programmes. She regularly works with the World Health Organisation and with other research, practice, and public health leaders in maternity care around the world.
She has been involved as a lead and researcher in so many influential research projects, including the Babies Born Better survey.
In 2001, Soo set up the International Normal Birth Conference series, which has run in the UK and overseas each year.
Soo has been, and continues to be an inspiring and dynamic individual, committed to developing and improving care to women and babies through applying evidence and research. She is always generous with her time, sharing of knowledge and supporting her midwifery family. She was appointed OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2011.
Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership and Management Excellence
Dr Tracey Cooper MBE, Chief Midwife, North East and Yorkshire Regions
Tracey has been a midwife for over 30 years, and has worked in all areas of midwifery, including holding positions as Midwifery manager, and as Consultant Midwife. Tracey was the first Chief Midwife in the North East and Yorkshire regions, and in this role, has been instrumental in supporting the development of women and baby centred care, including home birth and birth Centre models of Care. She consistently works to develop personalised and individualised care for women and their families, towards reducing health inequalities and improving birth and perinatal outcomes, especially for women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and other disadvantaged groups. Her leadership is supportive and enabling for the midwives and other staff, leading the development of career pathways and developing midwifery research
She was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives in 2017, and awarded an MBE in the New Years honours of 2018, as well as an Outstanding contribution Award for midwifery and Maternity Services from the Maternity and Midwifery Forum.
Narrowcast Media Group produced, filmed and live streamed the Awards Ceremony on the day. You can watch back the ceremony on-demand today and catch up on all of the action from the day that you may have missed.
Watch the ceremony (below) and take a look back at some of special moments from the day in this article.
Watch the awards here: https://vimeo.com/1099951502?p=0s