Squaring the Circle

Soo is a Professor of Midwifery Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK (https://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/professor_soo_downe.php). Her specific focus is the normal physiology of childbirth, including the processes which can maximise normal birth. She is the Chair of the International Birth Research and Action Association (IBRAA) which builds on the EU funded BIRTH network, involving over 120 scientists and activists in 33 countries. She has worked on WHO guidelines, and has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers and books. She  was awarded an OBE in 2011. _____ Sheena Byrom has been a midwife since the 1970s, and latterly as a consultant midwife and head of midwifery. She writes and lectures regularly on childbirth and midwifery related topics, and is the joint owner of all4maternity.com an online learning platform for maternity workers, incorporating The Practising Midwife journal. Sheena received an OBE for services to midwifery in 2011, and has been awarded two honorary doctorates in 2016 and 2018.   Her first book, Catching Babies, was published in 2011 to rave reviews (Headline). You can follow Sheena on Twitter and visit her website here. _____ Together they previously edited The Roar Behind the Silence (Pinter & Martin).