Babies and COVID-19: The impact and issues

Dr Tim Watts is a full time NHS consultant on the Evelina London Neonatal Unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He has special interests in neonatal infection and neonatal haematology. In his role as clinical lead for the south London neonatal network, he chaired a group of infection, public health and neonatal staff responsible for writing the pan-London infection prevention and control guideline for neonatal units. He is principal investigator at Evelina London for the NeonIN international neonatal infection network and is co-author of the Oxford Handbook of Neonatology. He is also involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching of medical, nursing and midwifery staff in King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Pat O’Brien is a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and vice president for membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Having been divisional clinical director for Women’s Health at UCLH, he is now governance lead. An RCOG council member since 2014, he has sat on a range of committees and working parties at the RCOG and Department of Health, and is a media spokesperson for the RCOG. He has been chair of the international section of the Institute for Women’s Health in London, and chair of the Clinical Research Hubs Network Portfolio Board, UCLH. He is the immediate past secretary of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Council of the Royal Society of Medicine. He has until recently been chair of the medical advisory committee at the Portland Hospital and chair of the Women’s Health Division of HCA in the UK. He is a patron of the charity SafeHands for Mothers which works to promote women’s health in disadvantaged countries.

Mrs Becky Parker has worked as a midwife since 2007 and has spent most of her career in Southampton. Initially working for several years doing team case loading she went on to become a coordinator at a freestanding birth centre. Becky joined the consultant practitioner trainee programme in the Wessex region last year to gain experience in leadership, quality improvement and education in preparation for a role as a consultant midwife. She is doing a PhD researching midwives’ experience of managing intrapartum emergencies in community settings.