Meet the expert: Anne Richley, Midwifery Matron
If you've read any of MadeForMums articles about pregnancy and birth, you've probably seen a quote from our expert midwife, Anne Richley. Here's everything you need to know about her
Who is Anne Richley?
Anne is a midwife with 22 years' experience. She is currently Matron for Community Midwifery Service at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.
What is Anne's expertise?
Anne began her midwifery training in 1996 after having 2 children of her own, and her ambition was to become a community midwife – which she has!
She also helped set up the Royal College of Midwives' award-winning Northampton Home Birth team in 2010, which is still going strong.
In 2014, Anne helped start a Meet the Matrons clinic where women could come for advice and support about having the safe birth of their choice – and talk, in a compassionate environment, about their previous births and raise any concerns they had or might have about future births. The clinic was a finalist for a 2017 Patient Experience Network National award.
Can you explain Anne's connection to MadeForMums?
Anne has written for MadeForMums on many topics around childbirth over the years years. She's covered subjects such as:
- pre-eclampsia
- home births
- hospital births
- how to cope when you're overdue
- how to keep cool when you're pregnant.
and many, many more. We also include Anne's wise advice in many of the pregnancy and birth articles we write in-house.
My passion for midwifery has never lessened and I have always wanted every woman to have a positive experience of birth, whether by Caesarean section or homebirth. Good communication and listening is essential to ensure that women feel supported in their choices.
What else does Anne do?
Anne has written a number of books on pregnancy and birth, published by Hamlyn, including Your Baby's First Year and Labour & Birth.
In 2019, Anne started a secondment helping to implement the recommendations of National Maternity Review called Better Births that aim to improve the outcomes for pregnant women and their babies across England.
Where can I find out more about Anne?
Read more...
Authors
Tara is mum to 1 daughter and worked as a Content Editor at MadeForMums from 2015 to 2021.