Our Experts
Our board of experts includes leading figures in both research and practice relating to birth trauma. We are able to turn to them for professional advice and information on recent developments and we are indebted to them for their invaluable voluntary contributions.
Meet our Experts
-
Clo is co-founder of the Five X More campaign to improve maternal health outcomes for Black mothers, and founder of @_prosperitys, a social enterprise supporting black, Asian and minority ethnic pregnant women.
-
Scott is a renowned expert in paternal mental health and cultural differences. He is an accomplished keynote speaker, lecturer, parent educator and mental health trainer. With over 20 years of parenting experience and having faced personal challenges, Scott advises and educates organizations on better engagement with fathers. He led the Best Beginnings charity fathers’ advisory group and launched Fathers’ Beacon, a support group for frontline fathers in collaboration with Blue Minds from the Metropolitan Police force. Scott’s expertise is highly sought-after in the field of paternal mental health and fatherhood support.
-
Geeta Nayar is a Senior Associate Solicitor with a specialism in maternal injury claims.
Geeta joined Irwin Mitchell in 2000 and developed a particular interest in brain and spinal injury claims and birth injury cases. She worked closely with several charities to support injured clients including Headway, AVMA and was Vice-chair of UKABIF (United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum). Geeta also helped establish the ABI APPG (Acquired Brain Injury All Party Parliamentary Group) and set up ABIL (London Acquired Brain Injury Forum).
In 2008 during the birth of her first child, Geeta sustained life-changing injuries and had to undergo extensive medical treatment. As a result of her journey she has become an advocate and strong campaigner for women with severe perineal and maternal injuries. Geeta has been closely involved with the MASIC Foundation since it launched to improve the prevention and detection of injuries and to support injured women, and speaks widely about her experience to give visibility to women from all backgrounds who’ve experienced OASI. Geeta also has a special interest in ethnicity and maternal health inequity.
Geeta returned to Irwin Mitchell in early 2023 to work with maternal injury clients, charitable partners, and organisations to improve outcomes for those affected by these devastating injuries.
-
Amjad is a trainee surgeon and a neuroscientist. He has an interest in management of complications resulting in neurological injury to either mother or child and hypoxic brain injury.
-
Arti is a partner in the medical negligence team at leading law firm Field Fisher. She acts exclusively on behalf of claimants, and has significant experience of maximum severity claims, including those involving fertility issues. She offers a monthly pro bono legal clinic to our members.
-
After a career in the NHS as a consultant obstetrician for 22 years, where Helen developed a special interest in supporting women who had experienced traumatic birth events, Helen moved to work in global maternal health where she has developed and delivered training interventions for midwives and doctors in low-resource countries.
-
Susan is professor of maternal and child health at City University. Her main interest is the development of post-traumatic stress disorder after health events, particularly childbirth. She has undertaken qualitative and quantitative studies of traumatic birth and published widely on the topic.
-
Ravi has been a consultant paediatrician in Chester since 2004 having trained in the north-east of England, Bristol, London and New South Wales. He believes passionately that the care of children should be a collaboration between clinicians, children and their families. He trains doctors and midwives in neonatal life support and has provided ongoing care to many babies and children who have had medical issues following traumatic births. He has provided medical insights for various broadcast and print media organisations over the years. In his spare time, he likes to run and cycle long distances very slowly, sings in a band and occasionally forays into amateur dramatics.
-
Pauline is professor in clinical psychology at the University of Liverpool and consultant clinical psychologist for Liverpool Women’s Hospital. She previously worked for the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals where she pioneered the Birth Trauma Clinic which has now developed into the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ‘Birth in Mind’ (Maternal Mental Health) Service. Previously she was deputy director for the clinical psychology unit at the University of Sheffield where she was involved from the beginning of the doctoral clinical psychology training programme. In addition to working with women, Professor Slade has pioneered programmes for preventing and managing post-traumatic stress in maternity staff. She has run numerous funded projects including randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and qualitative research and published widely on the subject of maternal mental health. You can see a fuller biography here.
-
Corinna is a senior associate solicitor in the clinical negligence department of law firm Taylor Emmet, with a special interest in birth trauma, maternity and postnatal care. She is able to provide advice to our members on topics such as requesting birth notes and medical records, making a formal complaint to the hospital, Inquests, time limits and the grounds for a medical negligence case. Corinna can advise on what your options are and potential next steps and help you with this. She can provide as much or as little help as you want. Her advice is pro bono and without obligation.
-
Elizabeth is a registered midwife, lecturer and researcher on birth trauma. She was awarded the Dr Albert McKern Scholarship in collaboration with the Universities of Sydney, Yale and Edinburgh to undertake perinatal research into the cause, prevention and treatment of mental and physical distress related to childbirth. She obtained her PhD from the faculty of medicine at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her thesis is entitled: The link between somatic and psychological sequelae of traumatic vaginal birth. Findings were instrumental in founding the Australasian Birth Trauma Association. She is a member of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health.
