A University of Central Lancashire Partnership: The Midwives Project

The One Thought Institute is interested in the potential for scaling access to innate health programming through a 12-week, asynchronous learning course. This online program has recently been adopted as the primary mental health and wellbeing resource for 500 international midwives being recruited to the UK as part of a nationally-funded workforce initiative. This project offers an opportunity to consider how the innate health paradigm may relate to the patterns of stress, burnout, and anxiety within this cohort of midwives across their transition to the UK, during their training period. This project will also offer the first evidence related to a scalable and online-based innate health intervention program.

Project Team

Innate Health Research has teamed up with Professor Gill Thompson, a Professor in Perinatal Health at the School of Community Health and Midwifery at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) to catalyze this research opportunity. This research project builds on the partnership between One Thought and All4Maternity, who have been collaborating to provide mental health and well-being resources to midwives across the UK with support from the National Health Service (NHS). Innate Health Research was excited to bring this project to fruition, pairing their expertise in studying innate health intervention across many populations with the expertise of Professor Thompson in the field of maternal and perinatal health. The support of the UCLan academic and research environment pairs well with the nimble capacity of Innate Health Research as a non-profit research start-up. Partnering closely with All4Maternity and One Thought, we jointly designed a research project that is appropriate for the population and that can navigate the complexities of international healthcare.

Our Process

This project draws on a shared motivation to improve the mental health and well-being of midwives. All4Maternity is recruiting 500 midwives to take part in a range of support services, including the online mental health program delivered by One Thought. UCLan provides ethics oversight, content expertise, and secure data housing. Innate Health Research designed the research, co-wrote the ethics application, and will analyze pre, post, and follow-up data. All partners will help with sharing the outcomes in a variety of settings, including peer-review publications and with key stakeholders.

Our Impact

Based on a sizable population, this project has the potential to permeate the healthcare field, provide scalable digital programming, and develop a deeper understanding of positive mental health outcomes. Innate Health Research is proud to be working on a project with the potential for real-world implications and scale.