A qualitative investigation of the experiences and impact of negative healthcare provider interactions during a traumatic birth

Background: The experience of birth trauma is common and can have a detrimental impact on a birthing person’s psychosocial wellbeing. Research exploring the aetiology of birth trauma has highlighted that negative interactions with healthcare providers is a key risk factor for birth trauma. However, there is limited research exploring the nature of these interactions within the context of NHS maternity services. Aims: The current study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how birthing people experience negative interactions with healthcare providers and how negative interactions may contribute to the experience of birth trauma. Method: Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with birthing people who had given birth using NHS services in the last five years. These were analysed using a thematic analysis. Results: The study identified three main themes: 1) hospital centred care 2) power and the maternity system 3) the lasting impact. Conclusion: The study findings indicate that negative interactions with healthcare providers during childbirth is central to the experience of birth trauma. Negative interactions were associated with a lack of personalised care and the epistemic privileging of healthcare providers. The experience of negative interactions had a significant impact on participants’ wellbeing and altered their trust in health systems

Water photonics, non-linearity, and anomalously large electro-optic coefficients in poled silica fibers

© Copyright Materials Research Society 2018. A review of the literature offers an explanation for the large anomalous electro-optic (e.o.) effect reported by Fujiwara et al. in 1994. It is based on the large e.o. coefficient of ordered water at an interface measured in recent years >1000 pm/V. More broadly, the concept of water-based photonics, where water could be a new platform material for devices and systems, is introduced, suggesting that liquid states of matter can allow ready shaping and exploitation of many processes in ways not previously considered. This paper is a commentary on the significance of this new understanding and the broader interest of water in photonics, particularly its consideration as a new platform material

Optical sensing: The last frontier for enabling intelligence in our wired up world and beyond

Consigned to the shadows of telecommunications, optical sensing has often taken a back seat in a young person's mind when considering the importance of photonics, or optics, to the advancement of the society and of knowledge. Here, I touch on briefly how broad optical sensing and sensing generally has become and how and why it is becoming the catalyst for the convergence of many technologies and in the process raising significant philosophical questions about the transformation of our society and indeed ourselves. In doing so I touch on many of the complexities in real life that influence the breakthroughs we see today, including a healthy speculation and critique on our society and an awareness of the motivations to improve it that drive many of them. © The Author(s) 2012

Room temperature self-assembly of mixed nanoparticles into complex material systems and devices

The ability to manufacture nanomaterials with complex and structured composition using otherwise incompatible materials increasingly underpins the next generation of technologies. This is translating into growing efforts integrating a wider range of materials onto key technology platforms1 - in photonics, one such platform is silica, a passive, low loss and robust medium crucial for efficient optical transport2. Active functionalisation, either through added gain or nonlinearity, is mostly possible through the integration of active materials3, 4. The high temperatures used in manufacturing of silica waveguides, unfortunately, make it impossible to presently integrate many organic and inorganic species critical to achieving this extended functionality. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of novel waveguides and devices made up of complex silica based materials using the self-assembly of nanoparticles. In particular, the room temperature fabrication of silica microwires integrated with organic dyes (Rhodamine B) and single photon emitting nanodiamonds is presented.Comment: Key words: nanotechnology, nanoparticles, self-assembly, quantum science, singel photon emitters, telecommunications, sensing, new materials, integration of incompatible materials, silica, glass, breakthrough scienc

The creative engineering education imperative for twenty-First century living

Engineering and design in the twentieth century were conventionally taught from opposite ends of an educational spectrum. Engineering education built certainty on a strong foundation of fundamental knowledge, with students engaging with applications only once those fundamentals were ingrained. Design, in contrast, involved challenging certainty, with divergent thinking, experience mapping, problem framing and exploratory research. Over the last twenty years, elements of creativity and design process education have progressed into the majority of engineering curricula, but change is still slow. Yet, meanwhile, the pace of technological change impacting engineering futures and has been rapid. Arguably, the ability to be open and responsive to radical changes in thinking will become increasingly vital for engineering educators and practitioners with the unknowns of rapid change, both technical and social. For future engineering professionals to be able to be responsive to each wave of disruptive technology, engineering educators will have to re-invigorate their efforts in the adoption of pedagogy that supports creativity and innovation in order to keep pace. In addition, engineering graduates need to be educated not only in how to respond creatively to new technologies but in retaining the human-centred focus of development in an environment where rapid technological change has the possibility of fracturing or supporting human centred and community development. This paper proposes a return to education aimed at producing holistic engineers who integrate social aspirations and technological innovation into their work, as in the nineteenth century, to safeguard human development in the digital era of the twenty-first

Chirping fiber Bragg gratings within additively manufactured polymer packages.

Fiber Bragg gratings are embedded within 3D printed polymer packages. Information about both induced and applied stresses, and operator error, can be determined from the observed spectral shifts and chirping. A novel way to produce packaged broadband gratings, with $\Delta {\lambda _{\rm BW}}\gt {7}\;{\rm nm/cm}$ΔλBW>7nm/cm, is proposed and demonstrated

Rethinking pedagogy for iterative design process learning and teaching

Product Design as an academic discipline is a relative newcomer to higher education. As a result it has had to adapt to the teaching practices and organisation already in place in Universities. However, with the viability of the current business model of higher education under threat from economic pressures, the dominance of established practice could conceivably be challenged, suggesting the time is right for a review of Product Design education as it operates within academia. Product Design educators need to focus on developing an innovative, practical approach to the organisation of learning based on sound design practice-based principles and provide leadership in pedagogy rather than adapting to the pedagogy of others. Design is a unique discipline that can impact on other disciplines as it is necessarily predicated on ideas of leadership and innovation. The role of Product Design in higher education should not deviate from that. Product Design has a real world heritage that is characterised by realistic, considered, innovative thinking. This paper is a reflective opinion piece, suggesting how that thinking could be applied to redress an imbalance in teaching design process to facilitate a more real world experience for the benefit of students and confidence in the discipline as a whole