Sophie Alexander MD PHD
Sophie qualified as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in
1978. She developed broad “hands-on” expertise in vaginal breech birth whilst working in two Brussels hospitals and currently works as obstetric consultant at a general hospital serving a mixed, largely disadvantaged population. In this hospital women are offered “well selected trial of vaginal breech” when ECV is unsuccessful.
She participated in the Belgium arm of the PREMODA study. The same definitions of poor outcome were used as in Hannah Trial, but the choice of trial of VB or elective CS was not random. The good outcomes of the PREMODA study are often considered the “antidote” to the Term
Breech Trial. Sophie teaches at the School of Public Health and at the school of midwifery, where the training continues to include skills for managing an “unexpected breech in absence of qualified consultant”
Sophie also works in the area of clinical research, evaluation and knowledge transfer, coordinating and participating in projects in Belgium, Europe and Latin America. She is also involved in issues of perinatal data utilisation, particularly within the PERISTAT collaboration. As counsellor for the “Office de la Naissance et de l’Enfance (ONE)”, she liaises with the policy makers and contributes to KT for primary care.
Dr Julia Bodle MD MRCOG.
Julia is a Consultant Obstetrician in Sheffield. A graduate of
Leeds University in 1991, she returned to the city to undertake her research degree and teach at the Medical
School. She has published original research in the field of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology encompassing laboratory based observation, clinical practice and medical education. After completing her specialty training in Leeds she became a
Consultant in 2007. Her clinical interests include, high risk obstetrics, substance misuse and intra-partum care. She is a staunch advocate of maternal choice and the demedicalisation of childbirth. During her time in Sheffield she has championed the wider practice of delayed cord clamping, skin to skin and upright breech birth.

Sheena Byrom OBE Registered Midwife, MA
Sheena is a practicing midwife, and worked within the NHS for more than 35 years. Sheena was one of the UK’s first consultant midwives, and successfully helped to lead the development of three birth centers in East Lancashire. She currently chairs the
Royal College of Midwives Campaign for Normal Birth, and lectures nationally on midwifery and childbirth related topics.
Sheena is the Patron of StudentMidwife.Net and a Trustee of the
Iolanthe Midwifery Trust. Her midwifery memoirs, Catching
Babies, is a Sunday Times bestseller, and her absolute passion is promoting normal birth, and a positive childbirth experience for all women. Sheena was awarded an OBE in 2011, for services to midwifery. Sheena actively lobbies for maternity service improvements through several social media channels. Sheena is currently an Independent Midwifery
Advisor, and her personal website is www.sheenabyrom.com
Jane Evans, Independent Midwife
Jane trained as a Nurse and a Midwife in the United Kingdom and has been a Midwife in clinical practice for more than 30 years.
Her practice has been mainly community based supporting women having homebirths.
Jane worked within the UK National Health Service for twenty years and has worked independently since 1991.She has developed extensive experience in helping women birth twins and babies presenting by the breech. Jane is the author of the
AIMS booklet, ‘Breech Birth, What are my options?’ and has published various articles in the Midwifery press.
She has lectured nationally and internationally and runs ‘A Day at the Breech’ workshops. She has a particular interest in increasing the knowledge and awareness of basic Midwifery skills throughout the profession.

Mr A Galimberti FRCOG
Lawrence Impey MBBS FRCOG
Mr Impey is a Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a subspecialist in foetal and maternal medicine. He qualified in
1998 from Oxford University and UCL, obtaining his MRCOG in
1992, and was awarded the FRCOG in 2007.
He is the head of the guideline group responsible for the new
RCOG Breech guideline to be released in October. He is widely published in the areas of labour, breech presentation and the origins of childhood handicap. He written, edited and contributed to several leading text books in Obstetrics and gynaecology.
Mr Impey is director of the subspecialty training programme in foetal and maternal medicine in Oxford. He also lectures regularly locally at Oxford University, nationally and internationally.
Within the NHS, Mr Impey specialises in complex pregnancy, particularly for women with multiple pregnancies and those at risk of preterm delivery. He runs the breech and external cephalic version (ECV) service.
Prof Frank Louwen, Frankfurt, Germany
Awaiting information for bio

Dr Helen Simpson Consultant Obstetrician
Has worked at the James Cook University Hospital in
Middlesbrough as a consultant lead for labour ward for 12 years. She also has interests in risk management, service provision and maternal obesity. She has been involved with developing a pre-hospital course in obstetrics for paramedics - POET with the ALSG, this course now runs very successfully in both Switzerland and Holland as well as in the
UK. As part of her role as labour ward lead she led a service improvement to develop a breech clinic and encourages women to consider both ECV and breech delivery as alternatives to caesarean section
Dotty Watkins, Nurse Director and Head of Midwifery,
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Dotty has been a midwife for 36 years with local, regional and national experience. Her current role is as nurse director and
HoM for obstetrics, gynaecology and neonatology at Sheffield
Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a SoM, too.
Dotty is a member of a steering group piloting ‘Harm Free Care’ in maternity services and is passionate about providing highquality care and a positive experience for women. As a HoM,
Dotty continues to manage a small caseload, which enables her to experience first-hand some of the challenges that frontline staff encounter.
The Sheffield Citywide 1:1 Team British Journal of Midwifery 2014 Team of the Year
The Citywide 1-1 team was created in April 2012 to provide care for vulnerable women and those whose choices contravene accepted local and national recommendations
Nicola Dawes qualified as a Staff Nurse in 2004, and then as a
Midwife in 2007. She has always had a strong passion in promoting normality and is committed to women centred care.

Nicola worked as a core member on the midwifery led care unit before joining the community Homebirth Team. She has been a member of the Citywide 1-1 Team from the beginning and has become passionate about caseloading midwifery. She is a
Neonatal Life Support Trainer and is studying to become a Supervisor of Midwives. She teaches on the Yorkshire Maternity Emergency Training days and also facilitates sessions for student midwives.
Helen Dresner Barnes was a Speech and Language
Therapist and Researcher in Child Language prior to qualifying as a midwife in 2004. She has worked as a caseloading midwife in Sheffield since 2005 and is deeply committed to women’s choice. She has led the Citywide 1-1 midwifery team in Sheffield since its inception. She has a keen interest in vaginal breech as an option for women and developed skills for breech birth alongside Jane Evans. Helen has a range of challenging midwifery experience, including breech and twin home births and works hard to keep women engaged with the service regardless of their birth choices. She is NIPE qualified and teaches breech skills as emergency training. Helen also takes a small independent caseload. She has both midwifery and language publications.
Sarah Martin qualified as a nurse in 1988, working both in the UK and Australia. Her interest has always been in women’s health and has worked in that field since 1990, first in gynae, then qualifying as a midwife in 1994. In 2010
Sarah chose community midwifery, joining a traditional community team. She went on to join the Homebirth team and found a love of caseloading as a care approach. Sarah joined the Citywide Team on its creation and is a staunch advocate of choice and normality. She facilitates teaching sessions for student midwives and teaches emergency skills drills to qualified staff. She will soon be qualified as a NIPE practitioner.