Esther Sharma is a Research Assistant at King’s College London, where she is using ethnographic methods as part of a study to evaluate the Core Competency Framework to improve multi-professional practice in maternity and neonatal care.

Esther is a midwife and has completed a Master’s in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has worked in a range of roles, from clinical midwifery to NHS management, and within third sector organisations. She has previously worked as a Research Midwife at the University of Bedfordshire, developing and implementing a community-based intervention to increase timely initiation of antenatal care.

Esther is undertaking a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, exploring the perinatal experiences of Afghan women while making state-unauthorised journeys through Serbia into the European Union.