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Karen Henry
Lecturer in Midwifery
- Phone
- +44 (0)1473 338480
- k.henry3@uos.ac.uk
- School/Directorate
- School of Nursing, Midwifery and Public Health
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When joining the midwifery team as a lecturer in 2022, Karen was delighted to return to the University of Suffolk as she studied the BSc Hons Midwifery degree here and, qualified as a midwife in 2018. Since that time, Karen has practised as a midwife locally in a variety of settings such as a midwifery led birthing unit, a consultant led labour ward, maternity triage plus the antenatal and postnatal ward. Karen also has experience of being a link midwife for autism and learning disabilities and is a mental health first aider.
During her time as a midwifery student, Karen participated in an interprofessional learning module, where she created a communication tool for autistic women to enable them to share their support needs with maternity staff. In 2018 Karen was nominated for, and awarded a place on the Florence Nightingale Foundation leadership scholarship. The scholarship enabled her to extend her original work, to create a series of support plans which, have been used in the local hospital since 2020.
The plans now form part of the NHS England Maternity Transformations project which, aims to reduce the inequity and inequality in healthcare settings. Karen wrote and took part in filming a training video to enhance staff knowledge and hopes the plans will support autistic women to navigate maternity services, plus equip them with ideas for reasonable adjustments to make clinical environments accessible for them. The plans are also being modified to support non-English speaking women too.
The drive to improve maternity experiences for autistic people was the motivation for Karen to study an MA in education at the Manchester Metropolitan University whilst working as a midwife. Ultimately, Karen envisages a maternity service where women feel safe and supported enough to thrive and embrace parenthood where maternity staff feel confident to support them in this.
Karen is also a founding member of a maternity autism research group which, is a collective of autistic researchers, university lecturers, authors, mothers and midwives. Their aim is to create a website to showcase the latest research and provide resources to aid care provision for professionals plus, resources and information specifically for autistic people. Karen sits on the editorial board for The Practising Midwife/All4Maternity journal. She has published several journal articles, has co-authored a book for health professionals and has contributed to book chapters. Included in this work is a Royal College of Midwives neurodiversity toolkit which aims to support neurodivergent midwifery students from the point of application to qualification and beyond. In recognition of her work, Karen was short listed for a 2024 Royal College of Midwives award for equity, equality and diversity and won a ‘Stars of Suffolk’ staff award in October 2024.
Karen says that within all her roles and responsibilities, women centred care is always at the heart of everything she does, and this is fuelled by her personal values of kindness, openness, honesty and provision of excellent care. Karen’s love of learning enhances her ability to provide evidence-based care around the latest research. She therefore feels excited to support the next generation of midwives, to teach them the art and science of midwifery so they can give excellent, quality, safe and effective midwifery care to women and embrace such values for themselves.
Karen leads 2 level 4 modules on the BSc Hons Midwifery degree programme which are: Anatomy and Physiology for Midwives plus, Care of the Newborn infant and infant feeding. Karen also teaches across the whole midwifery programme. Karen also teaches and collaborates with other health professionals to support the care for autistic people and the support of neurodivergent students.
Courses:
BSc Hons Midwifery Undergraduate degree
BSc Hons Midwifery Shortened Midwifery Programme
BSc Hons Paramedic Science
BSC Hons Midwifery top-up programme in Mauritius
In 2019, Karen was awarded a place on the Florence Nightingale Foundation leadership scholarship where she was supported to develop a service improvement (QI) project. Karen created a series of communication support plans for autistic women accessing maternity care which are now being used in Ipswich Hospital.
She has since completed an MA in autism spectrum conditions which has led her to her current work with the local CCG to produce a training film to teach maternity staff about the needs of autistic women.
Karen is a founding member of the Maternity Autism Research Group, where she works with a collective of academic researchers, authors, and maternity specialists to create an online autism training package for maternity professionals and resources for autistic people accessing maternity care.
Karen is also an advisory panel member for Dr Aimee Grant at Swansea University and her research ‘Autism from menstruation to menopause: participatory community led qualitative longitudinal research to understand autistic reproductive experiences throughout the life course to improve healthcare services’. Karen was involved in the initial bid for funding and the project was awarded 2.4 million pounds from the Wellcome Trust.
Karen worked with the Royal College of Midwives for one year to co-create and produce the 'neurodivergence acceptance toolkit' which aims to support maternity staff to support neurodivergent students.
In October 2024, Karen led an 'Optimising Normal Physiological Processes' module to qualified Midwives in Mauritius who were studying for the BSc Midwifery top-up qualification. The module was well received.
Publications - Books
Grant, A., Williams, K., Henry, K., Holloway, W., Nicolaidis, C., Kara, H., and Brown, A. (2024) ‘Co-developing anAutism Research Funding Application to Facilitate Ethical and Participatory Research: The Autism from Menstruation to Menopause Project’ in Bertolsdotter Rosqvist, H., and Jackson-Perry, D. (eds). The Palgrave Handbook of Research Methods and Ethics in Neurodiversity Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Morgan, H., Durman, E., and Henry, K. (2024) Supporting Autistic People Through Pregnancy and Childbirth. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
2022 – Provided midwifery and pregnancy consultation in the writing of: Clarke, H. (2022). Supporting Spectacular Girls – A practical guide to developing autistic girls’ well-being and self-esteem. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Articles and other media
Royal College of Midwives. (2024) Neurodiversity Acceptance Toolkit. London: Royal College of Midwives. https://rcm.org.uk/publications/neurodivergence-acceptance-toolkit
Henry, Karen (2023) Providing accessible healthcare for Autistic Women - blog post. all4maternity - The Practising Midwife - Blog. Available at: Providing Accessible Healthcare for Autistic Women | All4Maternity
Henry, Karen (2023) Providing accessible healthcare for Autistic Women. The Practising Midwife, 26 (2). pp. 37-41. ISSN 1461-3123
Henry, Karen (2022) Addressing inequity and inequality within maternity services for autistic women. Maternity and Midwifery Forum. Available at: Addressing inequity and inequality within maternity services for autistic women - Maternity & Midwifery Forum (maternityandmidwifery.co.uk)
Henry, Karen (2022) Human rights in childbearing: supporting Autistic Midwives in the workplace. The Practising Midwife, 25 (11). pp. 14-17. ISSN 1461-3123
Henry, K. (2017). ‘Empowering women with autism’. Midwifery Matters. December 2017, 155, pp.10-11.
2022 – Educational film for maternity staff providing maternity care for autistic women and the practical reasonable adjustments which can make environments accessible. Suffolk and Essex CCG Transformation project. https://eelga.pagetiger.com/cultural-awareness-hub/cultural-awareness-videos
2018 - Registered Midwife - Nursing and Midwifery Council
2024 - FHEA Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy