“Empowering our midwives”: consultant midwife Shelly Higgins on the importance of pioneering research

Shelly Higgins is a consultant midwife in Powys Teaching Health Board and the NHS Wales Executive (Maternity and Neonatal Network).

Following in the footsteps of her grandmother, she has worked in the profession for 17 years in community settings with additional expertise in birth centres.

Nearly two decades on, she still finds her work rewarding and said: “To look after women, having got to know them during their pregnancy and then get to look after them when they're in labour and build a relationship with somebody is just amazing.

“I remember a lot of the births that I've been at, but I've got a few that when I think about them now are so vivid in my memory. I think of just how empowered those women were.”

Shelly was drawn to research as she has always been an “inquisitive” person and was interested in data and evidence from a young age.

She undertook a Psychology undergraduate degree before training as a midwife and then studied for a Master’s before receiving short-term Welsh Government funding through the Integrated Care Fund to conduct a small research study 

In April, Shelly received an Emerging Researcher Scheme award from Health and Care Research Wales Faculty.

The Faculty offers personal awards to support individuals to advance their careers as researchers and improve health and social care research capacity across Wales.

Shelly is using hers to complete some exploratory work and develop a research proposal for Doctoral studies and her area of interest is in relation to transfers in labour or shortly after birth from home or freestanding midwifery-led settings (birth centres).

Health and Care Research Wales is currently promoting an opportunity to help shape Shelly’s research, inviting people who have been in labour or given birth at home or in a birth centre and needed to be transferred to hospital to share their experiences (closing date September 22).

“Take the time to try and understand research”

Shelly has previously been involved in developing an all-Wales approach to transfers in labour or the early postnatal period from community or midwifery units.

In her opinion, more midwives need to be aware of and interested in research. She said: “I look at midwifery and the thing that drives what we're doing on a daily basis is trying to strive to provide care to our women and families that is based on evidence.”

According to Shelly, it is important to use evidence from national guidelines but also from “tacit knowledge” – invaluable information midwives have gained from working with families and their experiences of pregnancies.

Shelly continued: “One of the key things is empowering our midwives to take the time to try and understand research and also participate in it.”