Susan Hughes

Susan Hughes

Consultant Midwife

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Department of Midwifery

Contact Details

email: susan.hughes2@worc.ac.uk

Susan is a member of the Midwifery team at Worcester and teaches on both the MSc and BSc Midwifery programmes. Susan holds over 20 years of clinical practice as a Midwife, entering Midwifery through the Nursing pathway. Alongside Midwifery practice, Susan has held numerous Midwifery roles, of which include, Research, Teaching and Quality Improvement. Susan is skilled in the high-risk and low-risk maternity settings, having spent time as a Community Team Midwife and later, as a Delivery Suite Co-ordinator on Labour ward.

Susan is passionate about supporting women to achieve the best birthing experience possible, believing that the best way to achieve this is to ensure that Midwives are not only highly skilled to offer this care, but that they have the adequate support in which to maintain these high standards of care. Susan trained as a Supervisor of Midwives before Supervision left statute from the Midwifery profession. Following this, she became a Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) in order to provide restorative clinical supervision to Midwives, central to supporting Midwives to enhance their practice through improving their wellbeing from a holistic perspective.

Qualifications

  • MSc in Advanced Practice (Distinction), University of the West of England.
  • Professional Midwifery Advocate, University of the West of England.
  • BA (Hons) English Literature & Community Engagement, University of Bristol.
  • BSc (Hons) Midwifery (First Class), University of the West of England.
  • Dip HE in Adult Nursing, Thames Valley University, now University of West London. 

Teaching Interests

Susan is a member of the PROMPT Foundation Faculty which delivers multi-professional training to improve team-working and therefore, clinical outcomes. During her time with PROMPT, Susan has facilitated on Train the Trainers programmes in collaboration with the RCOG and internationally, including Zimbabwe and Dubai.

Susan held a post as Fetal Monitoring Lead Midwife and Saving babies Lives Lead Midwife before starting at Worcester University. These roles primarily involved the provision of teaching and training to increase the standards of fetal monitoring in practice alongside undertaking quality improvement projects to implement national maternity initiatives.

Teaching Interests:

  • Physiological Birth
  • Home birth
  • Obstetric Emergencies – skills & drills
  • Fetal Monitoring
  • Quality Improvement
  • Neonatal and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE)
  • Human Factors 

Research Interests

Susan has worked as a Research Midwife on the IMOX Study: comparing oxytocics for the third stage of labour, and the Bluebelle Study (Phase A): a feasibility study of 3 wound dressings in surgical procedures.

Susan’s current area of interest is the study of midwives’ perceptions and experience of home birth in which any findings may highlight new insights and inform the service.

  • Global Maternal Health
  • Home birth
  • Service evaluation
  • Audit

Membership of Professional Bodies

  • Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
  • Royal College of Midwives (RCM)

Recent Publications & Awards

Research Midwife as part of the Bluebelle Study Group:
Blazeby, J. (2020) Bluebelle Pilot RCT of 3 wound dressing strategies to reduce surgical site infection in primary surgical wounds. BMJ Open 2020, 10:e030615. Doi:10. 1136/bmjopen-2019-030615

Research Midwife as part of the IMOX Study Group:
Van der Nelson, H et al (2020) Intramuscular Oxytocin versus Syntometrine versus Carbetocin for Prevention of Primary Postpartum Haemorrhage after Vaginal Birth: a randomised double-blinded clinical trial of effectiveness, side-effects and quality of life.

Poster Presentation

Murove B, Merriel A, Hughes S, et al (2014) A partnership approach to improve the recognition and treatment of the unwell woman in Zimbabwe. PMF.

Awards:

  • RCM winner of the 2023 competition to attend the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) International Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
  • Personal Research Award in 2022 – University of the West of England
  • Best Performance in a Period Unit in 2016 – University of Bristol

External Roles

Member of the PROMPT Maternity Foundation.