I am originally from Germany and I studied medicine there. I have been trained as a Neonatologist, which is a sub-speciality in Paediatrics. After graduation, I spent a year on the Isle of Wight as a junior doctor and got to know the English NHS. I completed my clinical training in Germany and started on my academic career by completing my habilitation (PhD equivalent). I then moved over to the UK to continue my work over here.
When I was looking for a job coming to the UK, I wanted to work at a tertiary neonatal care unit within a University Teaching Hospital. At the time in 2002 plans for opening the new BSMS were well under way. As a result the trust advertised a consultant post for Lead in Research for the neonatal department which I accepted. I was successful in obtaining a large grant from the European Commission in the FP7-HEALTH programme for studying an age appropriate formulation for Dobutamine. I then joined BSMS as a clinical academic in 2012.
As a clinical academic I have an interesting combination of roles. My clinical time is spent working on the Trevor Mann Baby Unit in Brighton and the Special Care Baby Unit at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath. My main teaching role is leading the course module BSMS 404 for the student research projects in Year 4. I supervise research students from a wide background, not only medical students, but also nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists. My academic work includes research projects and I carry out a lot of international work, which involves networking with international specialists.
My interest is in the period directly after birth. When a baby is born, they have to adapt to life outside the womb and they go through lots of what we call ‘adaptation’. I've done a lot of work on how to improve that, especially for babies that are born preterm. One of my major research topics is about when to clamp and cut the umbilical cord after birth to allow more blood from the placenta to the baby. This improves their survival rate and also improves their blood pressure and helps them generally get better.
A new project which we started in September and is funded by the European Commission, though a Horizon 2020 grant, is called Family Integrated Care. This is a method where we teach the parents to do more immediate care for their babies. It firstly helps the parents in terms of providing better bonding. As a result they are less frightened to take their babies home. It will hopefully improve the babies´ health because they have less infections and they gain weight better which means they can go home earlier. We hope to find the best ways of implementing family integrated care and discover how this can be applied effectively in the different settings.
I've now been appointed Professor of Perinatal Medicine and I would really like to develop the Department of Neonatology further, in both a research context and an academic context.
I think my biggest achievement so far would be my work on the cord clamping topic. My findings were successful in reducing babies’ deaths in hospital, and they have since been used in the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. It is now a requirement by the WHO to do at least one minute of waiting before clamping the cord. That is quite a unique event and not many researchers have had that influence.
I think it is difficult as a woman to find your feet in academic medicine and there are stumbling blocks and subconscious barriers, which are difficult to overcome. The best advice I would give is to find inspirational people who can guide young investigators and give good advice regarding career pathways. It is important to try different mentors, get ideas from different people and try networking early. Getting experience in another country also helps broaden your horizon and might guide young investigators on a suitable pathway.