Project Team
- Sara Borrelli
- Helen Spiby
- Minh Dang
- Liz Such
- Nicola Wright
- Matthew Young.
Partner organisations
University of Nottingham (School of Health Sciences and The Rights Lab) and Causeway.
Funders
NIHR Research for Patient Benefit and The Salvation Army.
Project date
1 July 2024 for 15 months.
The University of Nottingham (School of Health Sciences and Rights Lab) and Causeway have been awarded NIHR and The Salvation Army funding to undertake research to understand howthe best maternity care and support can be provided for survivor mothers and their babies. The project has been developed jointly by maternity, mental health and modern slavery researchers, survivor mothers and a service supporting survivors of modern slavery.
We carried out a scoping review to explore care and support during maternity for mothers affected by modern slavery (Borrelli et al., 2023), which highlighted barriers and challenges faced by mothers and HCP. However we did not find clear evidence about how care and support should be provided during maternity.Healthcare professionals have identified a clear need for raising awareness about modern slavery, training and maternity-specific guidance/recommendations. The experiences of staff working in non-statutory services have also not been reported in any detail.
Our project aims
- to explore what support and care women affected by modern slavery and their babies need during maternity and how these should be provided;
- to explore the experiences and needs of statutory and non-statutory services to support provision of excellent care during maternity;
- to produce guidance and recommendations for statutory/non-statutory services, policy + incorporate and mobilise these into existing resources, platforms and education opportunities.
The project started on 1 July 2024, and will last 15 months. We hope to include survivor mothers from varied backgrounds and cultures. We will use interviews and focus groups for data collection. We will also interview maternity professionals and staff from non-statutory services.
Using the information gathered and working with stakeholders, we will co-create resources to support women’s decision-making and guide those providing care and support during maternity. The resources will then be integrated into existing platforms and training.
The research will benefit from the advice and expertise of a group of individuals with lived experience and an Advisory Group with varying expertise, including maternity, safeguarding, and modern slavery perspectives.
Watch the project launch webinar
Meet the project team
Dr Sara Borrelli
Lead Investigator
Dr Borrelli is a midwife by background with experience in clinical practice, education and research, working as Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences (University of Nottingham). 
She is passionate to make a difference to midwifery practice through education and research.
She is an expert in qualitative methods and one of her research interests is maternity care and non-statutory support provided to mothers survivors of modern slavery during the perinatal period.
Prof Helen Spiby
Joint Lead Investigator
Professor Helen Spiby is a midwife with experience in clinical practice, research and education.
She is committed to developing research capacity in midwifery and incorporating evidence into practice.
Her research interests include care during pregnancy, labour and following birth, the provision of care to women in situations of vulnerability, psychosocial aspects of maternity care and the intersection between statutory and non-statutory services.
Dr Minh Dang
Co-Investigator, PPI Lead
Dr Minh Dang, MSW is a Research Fellow in Survivor Wellbeing and Scholarship at the Rights Lab.
She leads work to place survivors' expertise at the heart of antislavery work, employ and embed survivors' ideas to shape research and to develop more effective strategies against slavery, and create a survivor-informed and survivor-led global antislavery movement.
Minh is also Executive Director of Survivor Alliance, a non-profit organization that unites and empowers survivors of slavery and human trafficking around the world.
Dr Liz Such
Co-Investigator
Dr Liz Such is an Anne McLaren Fellow and does research on health inequalities – the unfair differences between people’s health.
Liz has worked with people who have been trafficked or exploited and is Chair of Advisory group to the UK Black and Minority Ethnic Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET).
Dr Nicola Wright
Co-Investigator
Dr Nicola Wright is a mental health nurse.
She is an Associate Professor of Mental Health within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham.
Nicola worked clinically in acute inpatient and Assertive Outreach services before moving into Higher Education.
Nicola is an experienced qualitative researcher, and her research interests focus on patient safety, care transitions in mental health, mental health recovery and survivor care and support in a modern slavery context.
Dr Matthew Young
Co-Investigator
Dr Matthew Young is Research, Participation and Policy Manager at Causeway, a national charity that supports survivors to recover from trauma and develop safe and fulfilling lives.
Matthew collaborates with partners to create pathways for survivors of modern slavery to meaningfully participate in research projects and to increase the sector’s understanding of their authentic recovery needs.
Matthew has a broader research interest in the subjects of immigration policy and modern slavery support systems.