Meet Rachel Ibikunle

Project Title: Identifying and Overcoming Racial Barriers to Effective Maternity Care: Capturing the experiences of Black and brown skin maternity service users.

What were you doing before starting this PhD?

I finished my Master’s in Population Health in September 2022. Since then, I have been working and gaining experience as a Research Midwife. 

What motivated you to apply for this specific PhD project?

I have been passionate about addressing ethnic inequalities in maternal outcomes ever since I travelled to Nigeria during my midwifery training in 2015. I was shocked to discover that not only are there huge inequalities between Nigeria and the UK, but ethnic inequalities exist within the UK also. I became increasingly aware that as a clinical midwife that you can only help the one patient in front of you and are limited by all of the challenges that the NHS currently faces. I knew that by moving into research, I could have a greater impact on people’s lives. It is evident that the voices and experiences of Black and Brown skin women have thus far been underrepresented and underreported.

What difference do you hope to make in Nottingham through this research? 

I hope I can provide the black and brown maternity service users of Nottingham the chance to voice their experiences, their concerns and their potential ideas about how to overcome some of the issues identified, and be truly heard. I hope that the findings will be transformed into tangible change, informing policy and improving service provision.

What do you hope to be doing in 5 years’ time? (personally and/or professionally) 

I hope that ethic inequalities in maternal care will have gone up the national agenda with more attention, focus and money being directed towards it to continue the work and reduce the inequities. Personally – I would love to be travelling! I had a sabbatical booked in March 2020 to go travelling that ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic so I would love to revisit that.