A third year Warwick medical student has presented her research at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' World Congress.

Alex Filby was chosen to give an oral presentation on the research she had conducted for her student selected component 2 research module, which focused on maternity care for asylum seekers in the UK.

For her project, Alex conducted a service evaluation of a maternity service run entirely from an initial accommodation unit in South London for recently arrived asylum seekers prior to dispersal. Her evaluation focused on the service user perspective and involved in-depth interviews with women in their native language via an interpreter about their experiences of maternity care in the UK.

During her presentation, Alex spoke about her research findings, with a particular focus on the women's needs that were not currently being met, largely due to current Home Office policies rather than the maternity care itself.

Alex says, "It was important to me that this research was presented to obstetricians. These women have complex pregnancies and poor outcomes - they are three times more likely to die in childbirth than a settled UK resident. I wanted to emphasise how their non-medical needs ultimately impact upon their clinical outcomes and that therefore these issues are definitely obstetric issues.

"It was fairly nerve-racking to speak at such a large event - public speaking is not something I particularly enjoy, but I got such a positive response afterwards I'm really glad I did it. I ultimately want the Royal College to demand better conditions for these women from policy makers - hopefully sharing my research with them is an initial step towards this."