
News Writer Sophie Webb reports on Sara Kenyon, a Professor at the University of Birmingham, receiving an MBE for her contributions to Midwifery
A professor from the University of Birmingham has been awarded an MBE as part of the King’s 2025 New Year Honours, for her contribution to research into improving maternal health outcomes.
Sara Kenyon, Professor of Evidence-Based Maternity Care at the University of Birmingham, acts as a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives, as well as an NIHR Senior Investigator. Regarding being named in the New Year Honours, she said: ‘It is the most wonderful surprise. My very first thought when I received the news was how proud my parents would be. I am very pleased and proud to be recognised for outstanding achievement within maternity care and the difference the work I have been involved in has made.’
‘It is the most wonderful surprise. My very first thought when I received the news was how proud my parents would be.’
Professor Kenyon is a midwife by background; she first began training in 1980. Her early work, to improve midwife involvement in ultrasound scanning and to help establish the long-running charity Antenatal Results and Choices, led her to become a research midwife. At the University of Leicester, she led the preterm birth trial ORACLE and its follow-up study ORACLE Children Study, as well as the 2007 NICE Intrapartum Care Guideline. In 2009, she earned a PhD before joining the University of Birmingham.
Professor Kenyon has held leading roles for pioneering studies across a broad range of issues in maternal health.
Professor Kenyon has held leading roles for pioneering studies across a broad range of issues in maternal health. In partnership with Dr Nina Johns, Consultant Obstetrician and Clinical Lead of Delivery Suite at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Professor Kenyon developed the Birmingham Symptom-Specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS). This system of patient assessment has been adopted by more than 100 Trusts in the NHS, as well as within healthcare services in Australia and New Zealand. Her trial iHOLDS (High or Low Dose Syntocinon for induction of labour) aims to better understand which dose of Syntocinon (oxytocin) is most appropriate to be prescribed during inductions. The NIHR-funded Listen2Baby study aims to improve midwife involvement in foetal heart monitoring. Additionally, Professor Kenyon holds membership of the MBRRACE-UK collaboration which investigates stillbirths and maternal deaths, as well as the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool team. About her impressive research career, she said: ‘No-one works in isolation, so I want to thank all those who I have worked with and my family.’
‘I am very pleased and proud to be recognised for outstanding achievement within maternity care and the difference the work I have been involved in has made.’
In 2024, Professor Kenyon was a recipient of the Rose Sidgwick Award for External Engagement and Impact, awarded by the University of Birmingham. Professor Neil Hanley, Head of the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Birmingham, said of Professor’s Kenyon’s naming in the New Year Honours: ‘I am thrilled by this honour for Sara. It is fully deserved from her work over many years and wonderful to see it all recognised in this way. It is testament to her approach that I know very many people at the University will be hugely pleased by the news.’
Read more from News:
The University of Birmingham Welcomes Sandie Okoro OBE as the new Chancellor
Comments