Dr Debbie GarrodClinician

Biography

Dr Debbie Garrod is a retired NHS midwife and long-standing NCT antenatal educator based in Abingdon. She qualified as a midwife in 1993 and worked across Greater Manchester NHS trusts before holding a consultant midwife post, later moving to a community midwife role while undertaking doctoral research. Her PhD, conducted as an ethnographic study in north-west England, examined how midwives and fathers communicate during labour and birth. She has also published research on psychological distress in pregnancy and co-authored the midwifery public health chapter in the textbook 'Essential Midwifery Practice: Public Health'. She has been an NCT antenatal teacher since 1982 and is known for advocating fathers' active and supported involvement in childbirth.

References

1. 1.Debbie Garrod – 2017 Award Winners | Iolanthe Midwifery Trust — Confirms PhD research topic, NCT antenatal teaching since 1982, Iolanthe Award and Ann Stewart Award wins, and base at University Hospital of South Manchester
2. 2.Midwife-father communications during childbirth: an ethnographic study | Health Research Authority — Confirms HRA-registered research study on midwife-father communication, affiliated with UHSM
3. 3.Open Letter from AIMS, ARM and Birthrights | openletter.earth — Most recent description: 'Midwife (retired), antenatal educator, NCT, Abingdon' — establishes current role and affiliation
4. 4.Essential Midwifery Practice: Public Health (PDF free download) — Establishes co-authorship of chapter 1 on the midwifery public health agenda, and prior consultant midwife role at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Stated areas of expertise

• Antenatal education
• Maternity public health
• Fathers and childbirth
• Midwife-patient communication
• Perinatal mental health
• Normal birth promotion

Notable achievements

• Won the 2017 Iolanthe Midwifery Award to fund her PhD on midwife-father communication during labour, and also received the discretionary Ann Stewart Award for commitment to midwifery practice. Source ↗
• Conducted an HRA-registered ethnographic study 'Midwife-father communications during childbirth' based at University Hospital of South Manchester. Source ↗
• Co-authored the opening chapter on the midwifery public health agenda in the Blackwell-published textbook 'Essential Midwifery Practice: Public Health' (2007). Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “The rise in the rate of medically assisted births in the UK, particularly caesareans, is laid firmly at the feet of women for being older, larger and having more complex medical problems. This ignores a range of clinical and societal factors that contribute.”

  Midwife and antenatal educator · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Reasons for rise in caesarean births | Letter ↗

Source references

1. Reasons for rise in caesarean births | Lettertheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• LinkedInhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/dr-debbie-garrod-119569b1
• Staff pagehttps://www.nct.org.ukpublished here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.