
Professor Jane Sandall CBE FMedSci PhD RM
Professor of Social Science and Women's Health
Research interests
- Women
Biography
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
Research

Global Maternal Health
Global Maternal Health

Maternal Hypertension
The Hypertension group strategy focuses on improving outcomes for women with hypertension in pregnancy

Maternal And Child Health Systems and Policy Research (MAPS)
The Maternal and Perinatal Systems and Policy (MAPS) Research Group assumes a life-course approach which is engaged with basic and clinical science research that has the potential to improve health care quality and outcomes from bench to population health, through policy relevant world class evidence synthesis, implementation and service delivery research.
News
Community based mentoring in Sierra Leone for pregnant adolescents and their babies doubles survival rates
An innovative community-based mentoring scheme for pregnant adolescent girls in Sierra Leone has been found to save lives.

New report identifies actions to improve open disclosure in England's NHS maternity services when babies die or are harmed
A new study looking at the experiences of families and healthcare professionals following incidents involving NHS maternity care highlights critical factors...

Three King's academics elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Professors Ammar Al-Chalabi, Maddy Parsons and Jane Sandall have been elected as Fellows of the prestigious Academy in recognition of their industry-leading...

Midwife continuity of care model linked to positive experiences during pregnancy
Researchers find that women who experienced midwife continuity of care models are more likely to experience a spontaneous vaginal birth, less likely to...

Seeing the same midwives improves birthing experience for high-risk mothers
Seeing the same midwives throughout the perinatal period makes a substantial difference to a women’s feelings of calm and confidence during pregnancy and...

New tool to help improve maternity care secures funding for NHS trial
A tool that enables midwives and doctors to more accurately assess each woman’s needs during pregnancy has been awarded £1.8million.

New guidance published on how best to support qualitative researchers
The guidance has been developed to protect and support qualitative researchers who conduct research and analyse data on sensitive, challenging, and difficult...

Telemedicine in critical care still not widely adopted despite technological advancements
Cochrane Review examines the international evidence base on the implementation of telemedicine in critical care

Professor Jane Sandall appointed first-ever Head of Midwifery Research at NHS England
Professor Jane Sandall CBE has been seconded to design and lead the midwifery research strategy for NHS England and Improvement on behalf of the Chief...

Pregnant women with serious mental illnesses found to be at higher risk of renal failure, heart attacks and embolisms around childbirth
New research from King’s College London shows that women with serious mental illnesses (SMI) which required specialist care were more likely to have a...

Spotlight
Improving outcomes of high-risk pregnancy
Addressing an unmet meet need for strategies to identify women and babies at risk of serious complications of pregnancy

Research

Global Maternal Health
Global Maternal Health

Maternal Hypertension
The Hypertension group strategy focuses on improving outcomes for women with hypertension in pregnancy

Maternal And Child Health Systems and Policy Research (MAPS)
The Maternal and Perinatal Systems and Policy (MAPS) Research Group assumes a life-course approach which is engaged with basic and clinical science research that has the potential to improve health care quality and outcomes from bench to population health, through policy relevant world class evidence synthesis, implementation and service delivery research.
News
Community based mentoring in Sierra Leone for pregnant adolescents and their babies doubles survival rates
An innovative community-based mentoring scheme for pregnant adolescent girls in Sierra Leone has been found to save lives.

New report identifies actions to improve open disclosure in England's NHS maternity services when babies die or are harmed
A new study looking at the experiences of families and healthcare professionals following incidents involving NHS maternity care highlights critical factors...

Three King's academics elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Professors Ammar Al-Chalabi, Maddy Parsons and Jane Sandall have been elected as Fellows of the prestigious Academy in recognition of their industry-leading...

Midwife continuity of care model linked to positive experiences during pregnancy
Researchers find that women who experienced midwife continuity of care models are more likely to experience a spontaneous vaginal birth, less likely to...

Seeing the same midwives improves birthing experience for high-risk mothers
Seeing the same midwives throughout the perinatal period makes a substantial difference to a women’s feelings of calm and confidence during pregnancy and...

New tool to help improve maternity care secures funding for NHS trial
A tool that enables midwives and doctors to more accurately assess each woman’s needs during pregnancy has been awarded £1.8million.

New guidance published on how best to support qualitative researchers
The guidance has been developed to protect and support qualitative researchers who conduct research and analyse data on sensitive, challenging, and difficult...

Telemedicine in critical care still not widely adopted despite technological advancements
Cochrane Review examines the international evidence base on the implementation of telemedicine in critical care

Professor Jane Sandall appointed first-ever Head of Midwifery Research at NHS England
Professor Jane Sandall CBE has been seconded to design and lead the midwifery research strategy for NHS England and Improvement on behalf of the Chief...

Pregnant women with serious mental illnesses found to be at higher risk of renal failure, heart attacks and embolisms around childbirth
New research from King’s College London shows that women with serious mental illnesses (SMI) which required specialist care were more likely to have a...

Spotlight
Improving outcomes of high-risk pregnancy
Addressing an unmet meet need for strategies to identify women and babies at risk of serious complications of pregnancy
