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Visiting researcher and PHD student wins Best Poster award

This project focused on how women, especially those from the Global Majority, experience a common monitoring process during labour. CTGs often create challenges for women and clinicians, especially in ensuring its use is respectful and patient centred. In this Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) project, women acted as co-researchers. A live artist and facilitators were also included to make the process engaging and collaborative. This approach made them active participants in identifying problems and creating solutions.

British Intrapartum care society (bics) 

Veronica Blanco Gutierrez, a visiting researcher and PHD student from the Universityof Bristol, supervised byAntoniva Georgieva, attended the British Intrapartum Care Society (BICS) conference in Edinburgh in November 2024 where she won the Best Poster award. (Image below)

why this project matters

There is little research on how women from diverse backgrounds feel about CTG during labour. This lack of representation contributes to unequal healthcare outcomes, as their unique needs and challenges are not well understood or addressed. The women involved in the project shared their past negative experiences with maternity care. They stressed that focusing on technology alone won’t solve the issues—they want care that feels personal, compassionate, and respectful.

Key findings: The co-researchers identified several areas to improve CTG use:

  1. Building trust and open communication: healthcare professionals need to engage more openly with women and provide clear, unbiased information about CTGs. 

  2. Informed decision-making: women should be given enough evidence-based information to make informed choices about CTG use. 

  3. Better Professional Training: clinicians need better education on how to use CTG technology in a way that respects and supports women.. 

  4. User-friendly technology: CTG devices should be more accessible and easier to understand.

Clinical and research implications

 The findings emphasise the importance of humanising the CTG experience—making it not just about machines and monitoring, but about creating a respectful, trustworthy interaction through evidence-based conversations between women and healthcare professionals. 

 The project also highlights the value of involving underrepresented groups in shaping maternity care and research practices and ensuring equitable and inclusive solutions.

Visit the Oxford Labour Monitoring research group and the Antepartum Group to find out more about CTG research.

Key Research themes: 

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