“I never imagined this career path would be open to me as a midwife"

29 July

A Research Midwife based in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has welcomed the launch of a new Welsh Government action plan designed to enhance research skills and opportunities across midwifery, nursing and the allied health professions.

Rebekah de Silva discusses the value of increasing opportunities for midwives to be involved in research, as well as the insight they are uniquely placed to deliver.

She said, “My university really put an emphasis on evidence-based learning. Learning to look at and critique literature and thinking about how it affects policy and practice was something that was really ingrained from the beginning and that I just found really interesting.

“When I was working as a community midwife in South Gloucestershire I looked after quite a diverse caseload of women, many of whom were interested in more alternative methods to pregnancy and birth. It made it really important for me know what the evidence was, so I could share that with the women to inform their decision-making, and encouraged me to keep informed in the most up to date research.”

During this time Rebekah was always looking out for research opportunities, but saw it as more of a viable pathway for other healthcare careers. She continued, “Wales has Research Midwives in every health board, but this isn’t the case in England. Maternity care didn’t feel the most research active, and I saw it as something more for medics than for me. I was aware of really good midwifery researchers because I’d read their work, but I just didn’t see how I could pursue it myself.”

Everything changed when she began in her current position, and discovered an entirely different research culture.

“The culture around research is so positive and encouraging. I cannot speak highly enough of how supportive the team has been.”

Having been encouraged to look into funding opportunities, Rebekah was successfully awarded the Health and Care Research Wales Research Training Award in July 2024 to undertake a Masters in Social Science Research Methods (Psychology) at Cardiff University. She has then secured an Emerging Research award, which will enable her to devote protected time towards building a PhD proposal around her interest in early pregnancy loss and support for women within miscarriage care.

Rebekah is passionate about the insight midwives can bring to research studies, due to the unique role they play. She continued,

Midwifery is a really unique career. There is a medical aspect to what we do, but a lot of what we do is social. We have so much patient contact and a lot of continuity with the people we look after. That is an incredible opportunity in terms of research.
“I strongly believe that midwives bring vital clinical insight and should be key contributors to women’s health research, playing a pivotal role in shaping research priorities and leading future work within this field. It is so important that women feel not only that they're contributing by giving answers, but also that they're formulating the questions asked.”

Her views are echoed by Karen Jewel, Chief Midwifery Officer for Wales, who also welcomed the new action plan. Karen said,

Midwives are uniquely placed to lead and influence change across the health and care system. This research action plan recognises the vital role midwifery plays in shaping evidence-informed practice that meets the needs of women, babies and families. By embedding research into every stage of a midwife’s career, from education to advanced practice, we are not only improving care, but also nurturing a confident and professionally curious workforce. I am proud to support this plan and the opportunities it creates for midwives to deliver better outcomes for the people of Wales.”

Rebekah is excited for the future of midwifery research in Wales. She said, “When I started my career I never imagined this career path would be open to me as a midwife, but now I feel like there is so much more interest and drive to involve non-clinicians in research and I’m thankful to be part of it.”