Dr Claire Clews

Claire studied a Professional Doctorate at the University of Northampton awarded in 2019. Her thesis was titled, Labour and Birth in Water: Women’s Narratives. Claire used a feminist narrative inquiry methodology to explore women's experiences of childbirth in water exploring how this impacted their sense of self and identity. Her findings were centred in the words of the women who participated in the study, through use of the voice centred relational method (VCRM) of data analysis. Claire identified that women's autonomy to choose to birth in water and the realisation of a waterbirth, positively supported their transition to motherhood and had the potential to help process previous traumatic birth experiences. Having presented these findings to national and international audiences she aims to influence maternity care across the UK and globally.

Claire's research interests are in the areas of:

Women’s experiences of childbirth specifically, waterbirth.

Complexities of midwifery care for service user groups with vulnerabilities.

Experiences of GEM student midwives 

Currently a supervisor for a PhD student completing in 2025:

An ethnographic study exploring nurse practitioners working within integrated sexual and reproductive healthcare clinics and the factors that influence the development of social intrapreneurship in a social enterprise.