Jane Sandall is a Professor of Social Science and Women’s Health in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King’s College London. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator Emerita and was the second midwife elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024. She has a clinical background in nursing, health visiting, midwifery, and an academic background in social sciences.

She was appointed the first Head of Maternity and Midwifery Research at NHS England in 2021-2023. This inaugural role focused on strengthening the translational research pathway to policy, to which she brings experience of co-chairing a Department of Health (England) Midwifery 2020 review of the contribution of midwifery to maternity policy and practice and a ministerial appointed expert on the Irish Maternity Review.

Research

Recognised as a global leader, and ranked in the top five experts on Midwifery in the world by Expertscape in 2013-2023, her research has informed maternity policy, service delivery internationally.

Her multi-disciplinary research focuses on the impact of innovative health technologies, maternity care organisation and service delivery, to improve experience, care and outcomes for women and babies nationally and globally. She brings methodological expertise in systematic reviews, hybrid-implementation trial methodology and implementation science to research complex interventions.

She contributes to several research programmes. For example, she co-led King’s Patient Safety Research Programme, leading a workstream on innovative technology and models of care to improve escalation of care in acute medical and maternity settings, and exploring the response to concerns of patients and families. This included a Cochrane review of interventions to increase patient and family involvement in escalation of care which informed her recent research looking at open disclosure in perinatal care and ‘what good looks like’ for families, staff and organisational learning.

She co-leads the Tommys National Centre for Maternity Improvement who developed and are testing the impact of a clinical decision support tool to improve management of women at higher risk of preterm birth and stillbirth. She co-leads NIHR ARC South London Maternity and Perinatal Mental Health theme which focuses on interventions to mitigate inequities in care, experience and outcomes for women and babies.

She is a co-investigator in NIHR CRIBBS Global Health Group to prevent maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity in Sierra Leone where she co-led a trial of a 2YoungLives community mentoring programme for pregnant teenagers in Sierra Leone showing a significant reduction in stillbirth and neonatal mortality published in the Lancet.

Knowledge Mobilisation

She contributed to the International Lancet series on the contribution of midwifery globally to preventing maternal and perinatal mortality and improving quality of care, and the Lancet Series on Optimising Caesarean Section Use. She is lead author of a Cochrane Review on Continuity of Midwife Care whose findings inform national, international and WHO policy/guidelines.

She was selected to join the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE) for maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health, and nutrition advising the Director General and co-chairs the STAGE working group on the midwifery contribution to reduction in maternal and perinatal mortality.

She has advised a range of government departments and agencies including National Maternity Strategy Steering Group external advisor – Ireland (ministerial appointment), and currently advises NICE, NHS England, Sands and Tommy’s Policy Unit, Race and Health Observatory, and NMPA. She also contributes to a range of NIHR, and UKRC research panels.

Esteem

She received an honorary doctorate, and Distinguished Visiting Professor Award from University of Technology, Sydney, NIHR Senior Investigator awards, CBE for services to women’s health, Honorary Fellowship Royal College of Midwives, NHS England Chief Midwife’s Gold Award, King’s College, London student nominated Supervisory Excellence Award in 2014 and 2025, and King’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.

Bluesky account: @sandallj.bsky.social

ORCID Profile

Dr David Cohen

Contact details

Research

Research

Global Maternal Health

Research

Global Maternal Health

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