UCC Nursing & Midwifery Scholarly Impact Report 2022

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CATHERINE MCAULEY SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, UCC

TRANSLATING EVIDENCE & INNOVATION FOR HEALTH

Minimising Birth Trauma and Adverse Consequences for Mental Health Outcomes for Female Maternity Care Providers Internationally Birth trauma affects mothers, fathers and children. The impact of a negative or traumatic birth experience can last for years and even a lifetime. DEVOTION CA18211 is the name of the European Union funded Network of maternity and midwifery researchers, established to improved Perinatal Health outcomes and reduce birth related trauma. The Network comprises over 110 researchers from 33 partner universities across Europe, working to improve Maternal, Infant and Family health. The main goal of COST Action DEVOTIONCA18211 is toconnect apan-Europeanmultidisciplinary network of birth trauma researchers. By connecting researchers across the world, CA18211 aims to accelerate what can be learned and shared amongst researchers. Ultimately, CA18211 is working towards an ideal universal standard of care to prevent and minimise birth trauma and optimise birth experiences. Two oral presentations at International Conferences were accepted, published and delivered. Lead and TeamMembers: Professor Patricia Leahy-Warren and Dr Margaret Murphy from the Maternity, Families and Primary Care Research Group are active sub management committee members leads for Ireland.

Highlights: • Prevalence rates of maternity care providers (MCP) exposed to perinatal traumatic events is wide ranging from 12.6% to 96.9% with serious adverse consequences. • At this meeting the members finalised the design and development of an international survey to examine the impact of perinatal trauma on maternity care providers which is currently being disseminated internationally online and preliminary results presented at the NLB Conference in Aarhus September 2022. References: • Prof Marianne Nieuwenhuijze (presenter, Mastricht University), Dr Healy, Maria (QUB), Prof Patricia Leahy-Warren (UCC) Oral presentation on ‘Maternity care providers’ experiences of work-related traumatic events (MATES): An International survey’, at the Normal Birth Conference at Aarhus University on September 2022 • Prof Patricia Leahy-Warren (UCC), Prof Marianne Nieuwenhuijze (Maastricht University) (presenters) Oral presentation on ‘The impact of traumatic birth events on care providers: A scoping review’ at the 9 th World Congress on Women’s Mental Health Conference at the conference centre, Maastricht, Netherlands, Nov 6 th -9 th 2022

Picture 1: Members of this Cost Action Network from 33 partner universities across Europe including Prof Leahy-Warren (circled back right) in attendance at the Cost Action Research Management meeting at the University of Akureyri, Iceland in June 2022. Picture 2: L-R: Prof Patricia Leahy-Warren (UCC), Prof Marianne Nieuwenhuijze (Maastricht University) (presenters) Oral presentation on ‘The impact of traumatic birth events on care providers: A scoping review’ at the 9 th World Congress on Women’s Mental Health Conference at the conference centre, Maastricht, Netherlands, Nov 6 th -9 th 2022

Website: CA18211 - COST Action DEVOTION CA18211