Mrs Sarah Farrell

Biography

Sarah Farrell is a nurse-midwife with a Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Science and extensive clinical experience in the UK and globally. She completed her Master’s in Midwifery and Women’s Health in 2015 while working in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. On return to the UK Sarah worked with pregnant mothers seeking asylum, leading to qualitative research on the maternity experiences of minority ethnic women in Liverpool.

Currently, she is based in the Centre for Childbirth, Women’s, and Newborn Health at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, collaborating with the University of Nairobi. Sarah is the first midwife to be accepted as a PhD Fellow on the Liverpool Clinical PhD Programme for Health Priorities in the Global South, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Research interests

Sarah’s research interests lie in global health midwifery research, particularly in improving care, health, or outcomes in maternal and newborn health. Currently, she is undertaking a mixed-methods study for her PhD, aimed at supporting Kenyan parents in recognising neonatal illness. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, Sarah is exploring social processes and contexts related to neonatal illness recognition, informed by her literature review findings. She is conducting in-depth interviews with health professionals and parents, as well as observing care provision. Sarah works closely with a Community Engagement and Involvement group, consisting of parents of young children, who help to direct the study and confirm findings. The results will inform a consensus approach to identify interventions that support parents in recognising neonatal illness and encourage prompt care-seeking. This will lead to the creation of a protocol for a future study to test the feasibility of implementing these interventions.

Selected research publications

Exploring parental knowledge, care-seeking, and support strategies for neonatal illness: an integrative review of the African Great Lakes region. – Journal: Global Health Action – Published: 1st December 2025

Maternity care for women from ethnic minority backgrounds in North-West England: A grounded theory study – Journal: Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare – Published: 3rd May 2024

Women’s Experiences of Care after Stillbirth and Obstetric Fistula: A Phenomenological Study in Kenya – Journal: Health Expectations – Published: 1st August 2023

MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING FOR REFUGEE MINORITY ETHNIC WOMEN IN THE UK – Journal: Practising Midwife – Published: 1st March 2023

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