Sheffield Homebirth Group

Anne Adamson
Anne has been a midwife for thirteen years, working both within the NHS and as an independent. She trained at the Jessop Hospital for women in Sheffield. She was appointed by both her daughters and daughter-in-law to be their midwife and all chose home birth. She feels this is the greatest compliment your children could ever give you! She runs her own midwifery practice in North Yorkshire and is the author of ’A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy’.

Helena Costen
Helena has run her own mobile and home salon business in beauty, nutrition and personal training for nearly 4 years, specialising in pregnancy massage and aromatherapy for pregnancy. Alongside running the business, she has been a part-time lecturer in Sport and Health Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University for 3 years and sports nutritionist to the England Lacrosse team, Sheffield Eagles Rugby Club, Sheffield Bankers Hockey Club and a mix of many other sports and activities. And as if that wasn’t enough, she is also studying for a second Masters at Sheffield University in Human Nutrition so that she may become a consultant in pre- and post-natal nutrition.

Wendy Davis
Wendy has worked as a midwife since 1973 apart from time out to have her four children. During this time she has worked as a clinical midwife, midwife tutor, research midwife and is at present a part time case load midwife focussing on home births in Sheffield.

Pam Dorling
Pam worked as a midwife within the NHS for 27 years prior to retiring in March 2007. Most of those years were spent working in the community in Sheffield, and in 1999 she took a lead in establishing a ’One to One’ case-loading model of care, which aims to give women and their families choice, continuity and excellence in care, and to give midwives an alternative model of working and greater job satisfaction.

Nadine Edwards
Nadine became involved in birth issues over 30 years ago when planning to have her babies at home. She joined AIMS in 1980 and trained as a birth educator in 1982. Since then she has worked with AIMS, run pregnancy and postnatal groups in Edinburgh, co-runs the Scottish Birth Teachers Course, and has become a researcher. She is the author of Birthing Autonomy: Women’s Experiences of Planning Home Births. She feels passionately that women need to be well supported in their decisions, by midwives and others, with a wide range of skills, who are themselves well supported.

Jane Evans
A midwife in mainly community based clinical practice for more than 30 years, and independent of the NHS since 1991. Has extensive experience in twins and breech, and is the author of the AIMS booklet, ’Breech Birth, what are my options?’ She has lectured nationally and internationally and runs ’A Day at The Breech’ workshops with Mary Cronk and Brenda van der Kooy.

Rainy Hutchinson
Rainy qualified as an acupuncturist in 2003 since when she has run a number of busy clinics around the city. She has a special interest in the treatment of babies and children, and having completed further post graduate studies in Paediatric acupuncture, Rainy founded the Children’s Acupuncture Clinic which is now based at The Osteopathic Practice in Broomhill. Part of her practice involves working with Mums-to-be in preparation for labour, birth and beyond.

Mavis Kirkham
Mavis has done midwifery research and clinical practice since 1971 and now works occasionally in a rural birth centre and books a few women for home births. Her current research focuses on midwives’ relationship with their work in the NHS. She is also supervising research projects concerning the childbearing experiences of groups of women who experience social exclusion and vulnerability. All this concerns how women cope with birth and bureaucracy and what are the key factors in their coping.

Kate Laurance
Kate has worked in a variety of senior management positions predominantly within the NHS but also within national and regional charities. Currently working as the Strategy Manager for Children Young People and Maternity Services for NHS Sheffield over the last year Kate has been project managing the delivery of Maternity Matters for NHS Sheffield which includes the development of commissioning intentions and investment options for Maternity Services.

Olivia Lester
Olivia completed her 3 year apprenticeship and training as an Active Birth Teacher in 1997. Since then she has established her classes and workshops in the South Yorkshire area. Working with women and their birthing partners to support and nurture a trust in the process of labour and birth. With a focus on the emotional, physical and practical preparation for birth the classes enable women to feel positive about birth.

Mandy Redmond
Mandy worked for ten years developing online learning. To begin with she really loved it, especially the teamwork. Mandy believed that she was helping people do their job better. Then the deadlines started to become annoying and she decided it was time to move on. Mandy chose osteopathy because she is helping people and she is part of a team, but with more flexibility. She finished her osteopathy degree, then had a baby. When her maternity leave was over she was lucky enough to be invited to be an associate at Chris Johnson’s family practice and decided to specialise in osteopathy for pregnant women.

Beth Roche
Beth is mum of one Home and HypnoBirthed child. She worked as a Nursery teacher before his birth, and since has worked as a Certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner. She became involved with Sheffield MSLC and Maternity Forum, and is Chair of the latter. Beth believes strongly that ridding fear from women’s birthing’s can allow them to have a safer, easier and more comfortable experience.

Denis Walsh
Reader in Normal Birth, University of Central Lancashire, UK Independent Midwifery Consultant. Denis was born and brought up in Queensland but trained as a midwife in Leicester, UK and has worked in a variety of midwifery environments over the past 20 years. His PhD was on the Birth Centre model. He is now Reader in Normal Birth at the University of Central Lancashire and an Independent Midwifery Consultant, teaching on evidence and skills for normal birth across Europe and Australia. He publishes widely on normal birth and is author of the best seller, ’Evidence-Based Care for Normal Labour & Birth’.

Chris Warren
Qualified as a nurse in 1978 and midwife in 1982. Chris worked in Croydon, enjoyed community midwifery with lots of home and DOMINO births until her daughter was born in 1990. When she was 7 months Chris went independent to combine good parenting with good/continuity of care midwifery. She moved to Yorkshire in 1993 where getting to know her clients and their families has helped her to develop a respective practice that helps and honours birthing women.

Dotty Watkins
A midwife of 30 years with local, regional and national experience. Her current role is Nurse Director and Head of Midwifery for Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Neonatology and Urology at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is passionate about providing high quality care and a positive experience for women so that they can have a smooth transition to family life. As a Head of Midwifery she continues to manage a small caseload of women who give birth in a variety of settings.

Panel of Parents