Centre for Childbirth, Women’s, and Newborn Health

A WHO collaborating centre

The Centre for Childbirth, Women’s, and Newborn Health, a WHO collaborating centre, is a dynamic, multidisciplinary group of applied health researchers. Working across global settings with the greatest potential to benefit, our activities are underpinned by a commitment to equity. Our well-established team has a strong track record of generating internationally excellent research evidence, and accelerated transfer of knowledge into health care practice.

Our vision, that all women and newborns can access high quality and respectful healthcare, wherever they live, is realised by:

Delivery of cross cutting and innovative research across key priorities and addressing poor outcomes in maternal and newborn health

  • Expertise across a range of approaches from evidence synthesis and exploratory studies to intervention development and evaluation 
  • Strong, sustainable international partnerships with academics, policy makers and clinicians
  • Meaningful involvement of women, families, and communities across the entire research and implementation cycle
  • Capacity strengthening, particularly for front-line midwives and nurses in LMICs, is a unifying thread integrated into all our activities. We pioneered innovative pedagogical resources to translate evidence into improved practice. We support a thriving network of postgraduate students and early career researchers across the globe, and welcome discussions with scholars from any setting or career stage, who share our interests and ambitions.

Research Themes

  • Prevention and management of stillbirth and newborn death
  • Improving support for bereaved parents and families  
  • Respectful maternal and newborn care to improve access and uptake of quality maternity and childbirth care in LMICs
  • Intrapartum and labour care  
  • Newborn skin care; global evidence and practice   
  • Maternity experiences of marginalised and vulnerable women in LMICs     

To find out more about our work and discuss postgraduate or postdoctoral research opportunities please contact CWNH@lstmed.ac.uk