Pioneer in midwifery awarded MBE for dedicated career in maternal health

A maternal health expert whose research in maternity settings has saved lives and changed clinical practice has been announced as a recipient of an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours.

A midwife by background, Professor Sara Kenyon from the University of Birmingham has spent her career working on research that has improved the outcomes for expectant mothers and babies. She is unique in being elected as a Fellow of both the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and is a NIHR Senior Investigator.

Professor Kenyon has played a leading role in the development of the Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS) alongside Dr Nina Johns, a Consultant Obstetrician and Clinical Lead of Delivery Suite at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. BSOTS consists of a prompt and brief assessment (triage) of women when they present with unexpected problems or concerns, and then a standardised way of determining the clinical urgency in which they need to be seen. Using BSOTS improves the safety of mothers, babies, and the management of the department.

BSOTS has been adopted by more than 100 NHS Trusts across the UK with further sites implementing the system and in healthcare systems around the world including Australia and New Zealand. The triage model has also been recommended by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), the Royal College of Midwives and the Care Quality Commission as an example of good practice for supporting the care of pregnant and newly postnatal women outside of scheduled appointments.

In addition, Professor Kenyon has been Chief Investigator of the iHOLDS trial (High or Low Dose Syntocinon for induction of labour) which will provide robust evidence about the optimal dose regimen of Syntocinon (oxytocin) for nulliparous women for whom it is prescribed as part on the induction of labour process. She also led the HOLDS trial for with confirmed delay in the first stage of labour. Professor Kenyon has also been co-investigator for Listen2Baby, a three-year programme, funded by the NIHR, which is aiming to improve the way that midwives monitor the fetal heart for women who are having an uncomplicated labour and an evaluation of the implementation of Continuity of Carer.

Sara Kenyon, Professor of Evidence Based Maternity Care at the University of Birmingham said after finding out she had been named in the New Year Honours:

"It is the most wonderful surprise. My very first thought when I received the news was how proud my parents would be. I am very pleased and proud to be recognised for outstanding achievement within maternity care and the difference the work I have been involved in has made. No-one works in isolation, so I want to thank all those who I have worked with and my family.”

Pioneer in midwifery

Professor Kenyon began her career training as a midwife in 1980, and early in her career was a pioneer in midwife involvement in ultrasound scanning at Kings and Dulwich Hospital. She was involved in the beginnings of Antenatal Results and Choices providing independent information and emotional support through antenatal testing and its consequences, which has been established for over 30 years. From there, Kenyon became a research midwife and delivered a major trial into preterm birth (ORACLE) and lead the follow-up of the children at 7 years (ORACLE Children Study) at the University of Leicester and her work included leading the NICE Intrapartum Care Guideline which published in 2007.

Professor Kenyon was awarded a PhD from Leicester University in 2009 and joined the University of Birmingham that year becoming a professor in 2017. Professor Kenyon is a member of the 'MBRRACE-UK' collaboration appointed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) to continue the national programme of work investigating maternal deaths, stillbirths and infant deaths, including the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD). She has co-lead five perinatal confidential enquires and is also a member of the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool collaboration improving review of perinatal death.

Professor Kenyon was also recognised by the University of Birmingham in 2024 as a recipient of the Rose Sidgwick award for External Engagement and Impact in the Founders’ Awards for her work on the BSOTS programme.

Commenting on the news, Professor Neil Hanley, Head of the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Birmingham said:

“I am thrilled by this honour for Sara. It is fully deserved from her work over many years and wonderful to see it all recognised in this way. It is testament to her approach that I know very many people at the University will be hugely pleased by the news.”