Jenny Cunningham Seminar

Event date: 29 June 2023

Venue: Hybrid

We were delighted to welcome visiting researcher Jenny Cunningham, Midwife and PhD student, Kingston University London, to the Shame and Medicine Project and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. Jenny’s work focuses on weight stigma in maternity services. Read her blog post ‘Maternity care for women of a higher weight – how is shame experienced?’ written for the Shame and Medicine Project.

‘Weight stigma in pregnancy – findings from a meta-ethnography and the development of a Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) project.’

VIEW recording.

Abstract

To better understand the experience of weight stigma as experienced by pregnant women with a raised body mass index (≥30m/kg²) and to find ways to reduce weight stigma in maternity services.

The research objectives:

To undertake a meta-ethnography to examine the experiences and perceptions of weight stigma of women with a raised body mass index (BMI ≥30m/kg²) in maternity care
To use a qualitative methodology to investigate what women would like changed in maternity services to reduce or eradicate weight stigma.
To use Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) which will involve the building of a research collective to advise and drive the project direction.
To bring forward solutions about how weight stigma can be reduced or eradicated in maternity services
To disseminate these findings together with the research collective
To develop post-doctoral work which will focus on how to implement solutions to reduce or eradicate weight stigma in maternity services.

Bio

Jenny Cunningham qualified as a midwife in 2007 and has worked both clinically and in research. She now works for the Royal College of Midwives as one of its Research Advisors and her work focuses on weight stigma in maternity services.

Photo by Mayur Deshpande on Unsplash

Back home Back to the main events page