The appointment of Professor Helen Cheyne, Professor of Maternal and Child Health Research at the University of Stirling, to the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce for England is warmly welcomed by the UK Network of Professors of Midwifery and Maternal and Newborn Health.

Professor Cheyne is ideally suited to this critically important work, which aims to deliver improvements on maternity services. As a health researcher and educator with a clinical background in nursing and midwifery, she has an international reputation for research in maternal and newborn health, built over 30 years as a clinical academic.

She has developed and led a successful research programme focused on improving maternity care and outcomes, and on capacity building. Her research has been consistently multidisciplinary and she has engaged many hundreds of women and families, and staff, in her studies. She has led and collaborated on large-scale trials, qualitative research, and national evaluations of complex interventions. Her work has informed policy and practice in areas such as perinatal mental health, maternity service delivery, intrapartum care, and care for women who use substances during the perinatal period. She advocated for and led Scotland’s first national maternity care experience surveys, ensuring women’s voices shape service improvement.

Professor Cheyne’s methodological expertise includes realist evaluation and theory-informed approaches to complex interventions. She works closely with the Scottish Government Chief Nursing Officer Directorate and the Directorate of Health and Social Care, advising on matters relating to maternity care research, maternal health, and maternity services.

As co-ordinator of the Council of Deans of Health UK Network of Professors of Midwifery and Maternal and Newborn Health, Professor Cheyne works closely with the key academic leaders in the field across the UK. She brings in-depth knowledge and understanding of maternity and newborn care and services, and an experienced, independent, evidence-informed, woman- and baby-centred approach to the work of the Taskforce.