Caroline J Hollins Martin

Professor of Maternal Health, Edinburgh Napier University

Prof Caroline J Hollins Martin (PhD MPhil BSc RM RGN MBPsS Senior Fellow HEA) works in the area of women’s health, with a specific focus upon psychological issues surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Caroline’s background has encompassed a career in women’s reproductive health that spans 35 years. The first 11 years were spent working as a fulltime clinical midwife at Ayrshire Central Hospital (Irvine), which is now known as the Ayrshire Maternity Unit (Kilmarnock) and is based in the west of Scotland (UK). The other 24 years of Caroline’s working life has been spent teaching and researching women’s reproductive health within universities. To date, she has worked at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), University of York, University of Manchester, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Salford, and Edinburgh Napier University (5 years). Caroline is a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Midwife and Lecturer/Practice Educator. She is also a graduate and post-graduate in psychology and Member of the British Psychological Society (MBPsS). Caroline’s research mainly focuses upon psychology that relates to women’s reproductive health, with earlier work relating to hierarchies within organisations and their effects upon decision-making and providing choice and control to childbearing women. More recently, Caroline’s focus has shifted to developing useful tools for maternal health practitioners to use in clinical practice. For example, the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) (bss-r.co.uk) which has been validated to assess mothers’ perceptions of their birth experience. Other research interests lie in perinatal bereavement, Compassionate Mindfulness Therapy (CMT), PTSD and infection control. To date, Caroline has published 105 peer-reviewed papers, 4 books, 12 book chapters, 1 sector report, and 100+ conference presentations. Caroline’s publication record is available at Worktribe: https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/caroline-hollinsmartin