Professor Joan Lalor

Joan Lalor is a Professor in Midwifery in Trinity College Dublin. Joan was awarded a BNS (Hons), MSc, MA, PGDip in Clinical Health Science Education (Distinction) and PG Dip in Statistics (Distinction) and a PhD from Trinity College. Joan's research contribution is organised around the following main areas: i) Complex Pregnancy Care, ii) Optimising Maternity Health Service Delivery, iii) Research Methodology, Health Ethics and Law. However, as a member of the academy Joan is also centrally involved in a number of collaborative interdisciplinary projects across Health, Education and the Humanities. Joan's methodological expertise lies within the application of qualitative methodologies (specifically Grounded Theory and Case Study) to complex issues in health care, Joan has a particular interest in area of sensitive research and ethical challenges in fieldwork. Joan completed her PhD studies " A Longitudinal study of women's experiences of carrying an baby with a fetal abnormality up to the birth and beyond". Her work in the area of prenatal diagnosis and perinatal palliative care continues. She is an expert member of the Implementation of Bereavement Guidelines in Maternity Care and the Neonatal Palliative Care Clinical Programmes, seeking to inform policy and service planning nationally. Joan is also leading the development of an international research network to explore Trauma and Traumatic Loss in Childbirth. She is a member of the ICM expert research group, is a reviewer for several professional peer review journals and is an associate editor with the BMC. She is also a member of the Pregnancy and Childbirth Group of the Cochrane Collaboration and is currently involved as a lead an co-reviewer for two systematic reviews and peer reviewer for others. Joan has been awarded over €2.5m in funding as PI or co-applicant from a range of funding bodies. Additional research interests include guideline development to support evidence based practice, research utilisation and ensuring informed choice for women in maternity services.

  Adaption Following Pregnancy Loss   assessment of fetal wellbeing   Fathers in maternity care   Foetal Abnormality   Health psychology   healthcare ethics and law   Identification and quantification of health care needs   Maternity Care   medical and health humanities   Midwifery   Parenthood   Perinatal health   Population based intervention trials   prenatal diagnosis and screening   Prenatal Screening   Scanning in Pregnancy   service evaluation and development   Ultrasound screening in pregnancy

Joan's research area of interest lies within Maternity Care and Women's Health. Joan's key areas of interest include: Methods of assessment of fetal wellbeing Screening and diagnosis of fetal anomaly Prenatal screening and diagnosis (including service evaluation and development), Theory generation, Trauma and Traumatic Loss in Childbirth