Baby Lifeline is delighted to announce that Chief Midwife at the International Confederation of Midwives and former Chief Midwife for NHS England, Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE, is joining Baby Lifeline as a Patron of the charity.
"For the past 40 years, Baby Lifeline has been doing important campaigning, research and training to improve safety in maternity services, supporting both families and health professionals to make care better for everyone. For this reason I am honoured to be appointed to the role of Charity Patron. I look forward to fruitful collaboration, especially supporting midwives and all members of the interdisciplinary team to provide safe and personal maternity and perinatal care, even in the most challenging situations."
Jacqueline shares in Baby Lifeline’s mission to make sure that every woman and baby has the best and safest care possible, and her ambition has become a global one since leaving her position at NHS England as Chief Midwife. She made history in both her current and previous role as the first Chief Midwife at both organisations. This speaks to her wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of midwifery and maternity care, and her influence in national and international healthcare policy and practice.
Jacqueline has been awarded many accolades over her successful career, such as the Health Service Journal’s (HSJ) most influential people in health list (2020, 2021, 2022), the Nursing Times’ Inspirational Leaders List (2015), and HSJ’s BME Pioneers List (2014). In 2022, Jacqueline joined Baby Lifeline to speak about national progress and learning from best practice at our National Maternity Safety Conference in Birmingham.
“Jacqueline’s experience, skills, and achievements capture what Baby Lifeline is all about: bringing safety, education, and equitable care to the forefront of maternity and neonatal care. We have worked with Jacque for many years as Chief Midwifery Officer for NHS England, and saw the dedication she brought to that role. We are enormously proud to have her as a Patron.”
Read about our patrons and ambassadors here.