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Denis Walsh

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Denis was born and brought up in Queensland,Australia but trained as a midwife in Leicester, UK and has worked in a variety of midwifery environments over the past 25 years. His PhD was on the Birth Centre model and is now Associate Professor in Midwifery at the University of Nottingham. He lectures on evidence and skills for normal birth internationally and is widely published on midwifery issues and normal birth. He authored the best seller -'Evidence-Based Care for Normal Labour &

Birth'

  • Consultancy

Expertise Summary

Denis has expertise in qualitative research methodologies, particularly ethnography, meta-synthesis, appraisal of qualitative research and critical research methods e.g. feminist research. He also has an interest in the evidence paradigm and the epistemological questions it raises.

In the context of childbirth, his research interests are in normal birth, midwifery-led models, place of birth, intrapartum care and waterbirth.

Teaching Summary

  • Normal Birth Module in BSc Midwifery
  • Dissertation Module in M Sc Midwifery

Research Summary

PhD student topics:

waterbirth

varying normal birth rates

ethnography of a birth centre

dystocia

what is a good midwife

women's experience of postnatal care

phenomenological study of women's experience of maternity care in Zambia

Funded Projects:

review of qualitative research's place within the evidence paradigm

why women stop breastfeeding

midwives views on early labour assessment

Recent Publications

  • WALSH D, DEVANE D, 2011. A Metasynthesis of Midwife-Led Care Qualitative Health Research. (In Press.)
  • WALSH D, 2011. A review of evidence around postnatal care and breastfeeding. Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine. 21(12), 346-350
  • WALSH D, GUTTERIDGE K, 2011. Using the birth environment to increase women’s potential in labour Midirs. 21(2), 143-147
  • WALSH, D, 2011. Evidence and Skills for Normal Labour & Birth: A Guide for Midwives 2nd Edition. Routledge.
  • Post graduate studies and research

Past Research

Meta synthesis of midwifery led care

Access and effectiveness of marginalised women experience of antenatal care

Ethnography of a free standing birth centre

  • WALSH D, DEVANE D, 2011. A Metasynthesis of Midwife-Led Care Qualitative Health Research. (In Press.)
  • WALSH D, 2011. A review of evidence around postnatal care and breastfeeding. Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine. 21(12), 346-350
  • WALSH D, GUTTERIDGE K, 2011. Using the birth environment to increase women’s potential in labour Midirs. 21(2), 143-147
  • WALSH, D, 2011. Evidence and Skills for Normal Labour & Birth: A Guide for Midwives 2nd Edition. Routledge.
  • WALSH, D, 2011. Enhancing Expertise and Skills through Education. In: Essential Midwifery Practice: leadership. Expertise and collaborative working. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • WALSH, D, 2011. Nesting and Matrescence. In: Theory for Midwifery Practice. 2nd Edition. Palgrave McMillan.
  • WALSH D & DOWNE S, ed., 2010. Essential Skills for Intrapartum Care Wiley Blackwell. (In Press.)
  • WALSH D, 2010. Care in the First Stage of Labour. In: C HENDERSON & S MACDONALD, ed., Mayes Midwifery Elsevier Science. (In Press.)
  • HODNETT ED, DOWNE S, WALSH D, WESTON J., 2010. Alternative versus conventional institutional settings for birth Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
  • WALSH, D, 2010. Reflections on running an Evidence Course. In: Evidence Based Midwifery: Applications in Context Wiley-Blackwell.
  • WALSH D, 2009. Small Really is Beautiful’ – Tales from a Free-Standing Birth Centre in England. In: R DAVIS-FLOYD, L BARCLAY, BA DAVIS, J TRITTEN, ed., Birth Models that Work University of California Press..
  • WALSH D, 2009. A Male Midwife’s Perspective. In: R MANDER, ed., Becoming a Midwife Routledge.
  • WALSH D, 2009. Temporality in a Birth Centre. In: MCCOURT C, ed., Childbirth, Midwifery and Concepts of Time Berghahn Books.
  • WALSH D, 2009. Pain and epidural use in normal childbirth Evidence Based Midwifery. 7(3), 89-93
  • WALSH D & BYROM S, ed., 2009. Birth Stories for the Soul: Tales from Women, families and childbirth professionals Quay Books.
  • WALSH D, 2009. Childbirth embodiment: Problematic aspects of current understandings Sociology of Health and Illness. 32(3), 486-501
  • DOWNE, S., FINLAYSON, K., WALSH, D. and LAVENDER, T., 2009. 'Weighing up and balancing out’: a metasynthesis of barriers to antenatal care for marginalised women in high-income countries. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 16, 518–529
  • WALSH D, 2007. Improving Maternity Service. Small is Beautiful: Lessons for Maternity Services from a Birth Centre Radcliffe.
  • WALSH D, 2007. Evidence-Based Care for Normal Labour & Birth: A Guide for Midwives Routledge.
  • WALSH D, 2007. A birth centre’s encounters with discourses of childbirth: how resistance led to innovation Sociology of Health and Illness. 29(2), 216-232
  • WALSH, 2006. Subverting assembly-line birth: Childbirth in a free-standing birth centre Social Science & Medicine. 62(6), 1330-1340
  • WALSH D & DOWNE S, 2006. Catching the wind: appraising the quality of qualitative research Midwifery. 22(2), 108-119
  • HODNETT E, DOWNE S, EDWARDS N, WALSH D, 2005. Home-like versus conventional institutional settings for birth The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
  • WALSH D & DOWNE S, 2005. Meta-synthesis method for qualitative research: a literature review Journal of Advanced Nursing. 50(2), 204-211
  • WALSH D & DOWNE S, 2004. Outcomes of Free-Standing, Midwifery-Led Birth Centres: A Structured Review of the Evidence Birth. 31(3), 222-229
  • WALSH D, DEVANE D, A Metasynthesis of Midwife-Led Care. Qualitative Health Research.

School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy

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