A student midwife from Bucks New University is pushing for changes in the way maternity services collect feedback after drawing on her previous career as an English language teacher.
Alice Kennedy, who has just finished her training at Bucks, has had her work accepted for publication in an article exploring whether maternity feedback systems are giving all women an equal opportunity to have their voices heard.
Her article titled ‘Service User Improvement Project – Giving Every Service User a Voice’ will be published this December.
Drawing on her experience as an English as a Foreign Language teacher, Alice’s work looks at how language barriers affect feedback in maternity wards.
While there is no exact figure for how many women using maternity services have limited English, Alice brought together national language and birth data to estimate the scale of the issue. Her research suggests around 37,000 births each year could involve a mother who may struggle to communicate in English.
She is calling for student midwives to be trained in using multilingual feedback forms as a core skill, so women who face language barriers can have a direct say in their care.
Following her training, Alice has secured a job at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, where she completed her placement.
Alice said: “Language barriers directly impact clinical outcomes. Working in language teaching gave me a real insight into translation issues and communication challenges, which inspired me to look at how we can help midwives provide fairer care from the very start of their careers.
“I chose Bucks because the course focuses so heavily on women-centred care and places a strong emphasis on addressing the disparities that women from minority ethnic backgrounds face. My lecturers were brilliant at encouraging us to spot where maternity services can improve and inspiring us to be the change we want to see.”
Carla Avery, lead midwife for education at Bucks, said: “Alice has taken her own experience and used it to look at a really important issue in maternity care. Every woman should have the chance to be heard and have a say in the care she receives. It’s brilliant to see Alice thinking about how we can make a difference while she’s still training, and I’m really pleased to see her taking that into her career at Wexham Park.”
Alice was previously nominated for Student Midwife of the Year at the Student Nursing Times Awards.
“The most rewarding part of my training has been caring for women and their families and seeing first-hand the positive impact you can make as a midwife,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be part of such an important moment in people’s lives.”
Alongside her clinical role at Wexham Park Hospital, she plans to continue researching ways to improve maternity care systems.
She added: “I believe research is an incredibly important area that can influence changes in our clinical care as we constantly strive for better care for our women and newborns, and I hope to be part of that in my career.”
Alice will officially graduate next September while continuing her work with Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
