Kelda Folliard

Kelda is a midwife with a clinical specialism in perinatal mental health and social complexity in childbirth. Her drive to improve care for women and birthing people with additional vulnerabilities in pregnancy comes from a career working with families facing the double whammy of pregnancy and new parenthood alongside mental health and social challenges.

Kelda’s academic midwifery practice centres on the same specialism. Her doctoral research examined the lived experience of anxiety during pregnancy and the first year post-birth, and perinatal mental health is the primary focus of her ongoing research and teaching.

Committed to developing others, Kelda holds a leadership position with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, working to increase the capability of midwives and nurses to be research active, and she chairs the East of England Midwifery Research Network.

Outside of work, Kelda loves hot yoga and live music and is an occasional horse rider. She is excited to be attending her first HBC Fest, where she will be facilitating a workshop drawing on her experiences from the frontline of health care to consider aspects of supporting change.