Maternity Safety
Healthy Culture, safer care
I am also on a mission to help organisations serious about tackling maternity harm reduce risk and litigation by transforming toxic maternity culture.
• 15+ years in obstetrics including subspecialty in maternal–fetal medicine (consultant since 2011)
• 6 years as a Clinical Director/ Clinical Head of Division and 2 years as Maternity Transformation lead, delivering change in pressured environments
• Extensive expert witness experience, analysing what goes wrong in maternity units and why.
Early in my consultant career, I realised that leadership and system change are just as critical to safe maternity care as clinical skill. I successfully led teams through challenge, change, and improvement. My leadership style has always been rooted in compassion, leading by example, and supporting colleagues to do their best work.
In March 2021, with COVID restrictions still in place, my life was turned upside down by a breast cancer diagnosis, which then resulted in PTSD due my breast cancer treatment. Recovery has been long and painful, and I’ve seen first-hand how poorly understood PTSD can be in healthcare.
Those experiences have only deepened my commitment to making maternity care safer for families and for the workforce delivering it. I know from both my lived experience and my expert witness work that harm is too often preventable. Poor communication is a common theme. I see the same patterns repeat: culture breakdown → communication failure → safety incidents → litigation.
Now, I am passionate about:
• Transforming the cultural risks that drive unsafe care
• Build leadership behaviours that protect staff and patients
• Reduce litigation risk through prevention, not payouts
I bring to this work the perspectives of a doctor, leader, mother, teacher, and patient. My mission is simple: transform toxic maternity culture into a thriving, safe environment – because culture is clinical safety.
Are you a fellow medical professional passionate about reshaping the culture in maternity care? I’d love for you to join the conversation—head over to my LinkedIn and be part of this important dialogue.
Curious to learn more about my journey of healing and growth after a PTSD diagnosis, or simply to understand PTSD better? Visit my other website, www.PTSD-and-me.com, where I share insights from my lived experience—whether you’re navigating your own diagnosis or looking for ways to support a partner or loved one on their path to recovery.