Ms Martha Nicholson

I’m interested in how midwives are trained to provide person-centred abortion care, information and support. Globally, mid-level providers such as midwives facilitate pregnant people’s access to abortion care. My research will focus on the individual, institutional and policy level factors that influence how abortion training is delivered in educational settings, and how this affects midwives’ roles in abortion care and support. To do this, I’ll work with midwifery associations and centres of midwifery education to collect qualitative data on how midwives are trained and mentored to support pregnant people’s choices, and the factors affecting delivery of the training.

I graduated with a Master's in Public Health from Karolinska Institutet in 2017. Since then, I have been working in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for non-governmental organisations MSI Reproductive Choices and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) as an Evidence Advisor. During this time, I evaluated abortion care training workshops, conducted formative research on community preferences for abortion care and developed results frameworks for monitoring and evaluating abortion care. My PhD research project is funded through the ESRC and is a collaborative studentship with IPPF and the Open University.