Birth spaces & Maternity Units: Co-produced architectural design guidance grounded in user experience & communicated in accessible media

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The 2 linked fellowship aims are: 1) to establish a published & interdisciplinary research-based academic profile for myself through articles written to consolidate my PhD findings & published in high-impact journals; 2) to realise potential improved birth space design guidance by communicating the PhD's 12 practical recommendations in accessible media co-produced with Leeds-based stakeholders. My doctorate identifies a new interdisciplinary research agenda for birth space design grounded in women's social, sensory, physical & emotional experiences of birth. This fellowship has high impact potential for influencing the content & delivery of policy & design guidance. Current UK design tools, e.g. Better Birth Environment Audit Toolkit (Newburn & Singh, 2003a) & Health Building Note 09-02 (Department of Health, 2013) are now out of line with personalised & woman-centred care maternity policy programmes (Better Births (National Maternity Review, 2016). Midwifery researchers have so far led the birth environment research agenda (e.g. Fahy, Foureur & Hastie, 2008). This new agenda will facilitate labouring women's spatial agency within often complex healthcare buildings & challenge disciplinary assumptions about the birth environment made by midwives & healthcare architects. The doctorate aligns with woman-centred care principles & develops spatial insights into maternity policy goals (choice, control, continuity of carer & personalised care) & architectural design principles. The 12 practical design recommendations value childbearing women's diverse practices, across all types of birth venues & childbirth experiences. The findings show that when labouring women are free to use spaces as they choose, they employ strategies which allow them to simultaneously produce & consume space - the thesis calls this 'prosuming' & 'curating' space. Social aspects of birth spaces are strongly experienced by childbearing women who value their agency in deciding when they move between spaces. The thesis critiques the main UK design tools for maternity units - three core UK policy/design guidance documents (NCT Better Birth Environment Audit Toolkit, Department of Health Health-Building Note 09-02 & Better Births maternity policy document); & interprets twenty-four women's drawings & interview transcripts to identify childbearing women's spatial practices. I am ideally positioned to complete the ERSC postdoctoral fellowship as a well-established architectural & maternity practitioner with a successful doctorate completion on the architecture of birth spaces. The originality of the proposed activities - planned with interesting, interdisciplinary & impactful objectives - reflects my practitioner career context. On completion, the fellowship will establish me as an independent interdisciplinary researcher & birth spaces knowledge leader. It will bring benefits to the community who participated in the study, across the UK & internationally. I will publish 3 doctorate chapters & my findings in high-impact ranked interdisciplinary journals to establish a publishing track record. I will be hosted in the School of Sociology & Social Policy at Leeds University. Here, I will work with scholars who explore patient experiences of healthcare, evaluate innovative health technologies/services & disseminate work to a range of stakeholders (patients, clinicians & policy makers).World-class facilities in the Leeds' School of Civil Engineering & School of Media & Communication will provide facilities for me & Leeds-based stakeholders to co-produce 3D architectural models & accessible media from the PhD's recommendations. These will be shared with stakeholders, beneficiaries, academics & external organisations in the planned final fellowship showcase. I will use Leeds University & White Rose Doctoral Centre training to enhance my interdisciplinary research profile; & teach on the newly-formed interdisciplinary architectural engineering programme.