Debra Bick is Professor of Clinical Trials in Maternal Health at Warwick Clinical Trials Unit and Deputy Pro Dean for Research at Warwick Medical School. Her research has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Department for International Development, The Health Foundation and Burdett Trust for Nursing. She is currently leading research on women’s and clinicians’ views and experiences of postnatal care following hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, a multi-centre cohort study of postnatal morbidity, postnatal weight management for women who had higher BMIs at pregnancy commencement, pathways for women with medically complex pregnancies, breastfeeding as an early intervention to prevent childhood obesity. In addition to leading research as a chief investigator, Debra is collaborating with colleagues on several large multi-centre trials and programme grants for applied research including The Big Baby Trial and the APPEAL feasibility and pilot trial, which is exploring if midwifery training to support women to correctly perform pelvic floor muscle exercises in pregnancy could prevent postnatal urinary incontinence.
Debra is the lead and/or co-author of systematic reviews for the Cochrane Library and Joanna Briggs Institute. She is Chair of the RCOG Intrapartum Clinical Studies Group, a steering group member of the NIHR 70@70 programme to support senior nurse and midwife research leadership, a member of the NIHR Health Services Delivery and Research Priorities Committee and independent panel member of the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit. She is currently supervising several PhD students funded by NIHR fellowships and midwives awarded NIHR pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowships. Debra has contributed to major policy reviews of maternity care in the UK and internationally, and guidelines developed by NICE and the WHO. She was awarded an OBE for her services to midwifery in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2020.
