Wednesday 29 January | 6.30-8.00pm (UK time)
Overview
This free webinar is an opportunity to find out more about key themes and data which impact on global maternal health, and identify the key ways in which organisations and individuals can make a difference. Hear from three prominent professors, at the forefront of global maternal health, as they give their updates and recommendations on the topic.
Speakers
Professor Hassan Shehata
Hassan Shehata is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a Consultant Obstetrician and Maternal Medicine Subspecialist. His NHS base is at Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals, where he runs busy tertiary maternal medicine and recurrent miscarriage services.
In addition to his College contributions in creating the first Maternal Medicine ATSM and a member of early workforce task forces, his previous roles included three years as the Gulf ambassador and six years as the MENA regional representative on Council.
Hassan is also the Clinical Lead for South-West London Maternal Medicine Network, tasked with starting up the network, creating clinical pathways and safe referral systems, ensuring all women with pre-, ante- and post-natal complex medical conditions have equal accessibility and care, irrespective of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, education, and post code.
Hassan has a strong research background with over 100 peer-reviewed publications including NEJM, Lancet and BMJ. His research interests include recurrent miscarriages, obesity, diabetes, renal disease, and obstetric cholestasis.
Professor Oona Campbell
Professor Oona Campbell is a reproductive epidemiologist with degrees in demography, epidemiology and biology, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She led the maternal health and newborn health group until the end of 2020. Her areas of expertise include measurement of maternal morbidity and mortality, perinatal mortality and evaluation of different modes of delivering maternal health and family planning services.
She has worked in the Middle East (Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey), in sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, Tanzania & Uganda) and in India, Nepal, Indonesia and Brazil. She have collaborated with a number of Ministries of Health, agencies and foundations (including DFID, WHO, World Bank, UNICEF, USAID, MotherCare, the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation).
She co-founded the MARCH Centre for Maternal, Adolescent Reproductive and Child Health at the LSHTM and currently leads an academic department with over 150 staff members.
She is currently working on projects in the DRC, India, and Nigeria and on data from Palestinian refugees.
Professor Sophie Harman
Sophie Harman is Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London where she teaches and conducts research into Global Health Politics, feminist political economy, African agency in International Relations, and Visual Politics. She has published eight books and numerous articles on these topics, advised the UK government and UN agencies, and engaged the general public through media appearances, film, and public talks. In 2016 she co-wrote and produced her first narrative feature film Pili, which was nominated for a BAFTA for outstanding debut for a British writer, producer, or director in 2019. She was the recipient of the Political Studies Association Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding achievement by a mid-career scholar and the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2018. Her first book for a popular audience on the centrality of women’s health to international politics, Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health, was published by Virago/Little Brown in 2024 and featured as The Observer’s Book of the Week.
Professor Andrew Shennan
Andrew Shennan is Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health and Head of Department, Women’s and Children’s, at King’s College London. He is based at St. Thomas’ Hospital and is Medical Director of South London Research Delivery Network. He sits on the NIHR Global health research board.
He specialises in clinical trials in antenatal and intrapartum care and is passionate about developing mid career researchers. His research interests include interventions to predict and prevent preterm birth and pre-eclampsia and he specializes in innovations to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality especially in low and middle income settings.
He has recently advised the House of Lords, NHS England, FIGO and the WHO. He is chair of the WHO StepMag Trial Steering Committee. He has published over 700 peer reviewed research reports (H index >70). He currently leads two NIHR Global Health Research Groups, based in Africa, India and South America.
He has an active clinical role in managing high risk obstetric patients, including a regular hands-on labour ward commitment, and a multi awarded winning specialist preterm birth surveillance clinic that accepts national and international referrals. He was the inaugural recipient of the international Newton Prize for excellence in research and innovation in support of economic development and social welfare in low and middle-income countries. He was awarded an OBE for services to maternity care.