Dr Nicola Crossland
Research Fellow
School of Nursing and Midwifery
Nicola is a health researcher with interests in breastfeeding, maternal and child health and wellbeing, and communication and relationships in healthcare and community settings.
Nicola is interested in women’s experiences through the maternity episode, particularly women’s experiences of infant feeding and early motherhood, and their experiences of care and supportive relationships during this time. Here at UCLan, she has been involved in a number of research and evaluation projects exploring women’s experiences of infant feeding and infant feeding peer support.
Related projects include an evaluation of the implementation of a midwifery continuity of carer model, and an evaluation of a mobile phone app and parenting magazine embedded into maternity and early years services. Nicola has also been involved in several systematic reviews, including systematic reviews of qualitative evidence on what women want in the postnatal period and factors affecting uptake of postnatal care from the perspective of women, partners and family/community.
She has also been involved in systematic reviews to understand the use of assisted vaginal delivery to reduce unnecessary caesarean sections, and to explore the role of inequalities in stillbirth. Nicola supervises postgraduate research student projects in maternal and child health, infant feeding, and related topics.
Prior to her research at UCLan, Nicola worked as a project officer in the health sector, and as an academic researcher in the biological sciences, where she worked on lab-based molecular neurobiology projects. Nicola served as a voluntary sector breastfeeding supporter between 2012-17.
- DPhil Molecular neuropathology, University of Oxford, 2001
- BSc (Hons) Genetics, University of Edinburgh, 1997
- Qualitative research methods
- Systematic reviews
- Mixed methods research
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- Full list of publications and articles on CLoK
- MAINN
- THRIVE centre
- Nicola has worked as a researcher on the following projects:
- 2021: The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Assets-based feeding help Before and After birth (ABA) for improving breastfeeding initiation and continuation.
- 2022: What matters to parents and infant feeding professionals receiving or providing support for parent–infant relationships during infant feeding care?
- 2022: What do ethnic minority women in the UK want from antenatal education?
- 2018–2022: Service evaluation of a continuity of midwifery carer model.
- 2020–2021 Exploring the needs and care of perinatal women from BAME communities in Lancashire and South Cumbria (ENABLE). 2020–2021: Achieving Safe and Personalised maternity care in response to Epidemics (ASPIRE).
- 2020: Training in assisted vaginal delivery (AVD) to facilitate complicated deliveries and reduce unnecessary caesarean sections: a systematic review.
- 2019–2020: Optimal caesarean section use (OpaCS): Formative phase for development and implementation of interventions to reduce unnecessary caesarean sections in China.
- 2019–2020: Systematic reviews on qualitative evidence on factors affecting uptake of postnatal care from the perspective of women, partners and family/community.
- 2019-2020: Assisted Vaginal Delivery (AVD) to facility complicated deliveries in low- and middle-income countries and reduce unnecessary caesarean sections: a systematic review.
- 2018–2020: Better Births Service evaluation of a continuity of midwifery carer model.
- 2017–2018: Inequalities in stillbirth: a metanarrative review.
- 2015–2017: Evaluation of Best Beginnings Resources.
- 2014–2015: Small Wonders Evaluation.
- 2014–2016: Evaluation of Breastfeeding Peer Support Provision in Blackburn with Darwen.
- 2012–2013: BIBS: Benefits of Incentives for Breastfeeding and Smoking cessation.
- 2011: Evaluation of the National Breastfeeding Helpline.
- 2011–2012: Evaluation of the Implementation of the UNICEF Community Baby Friendly Initiative in NHS North Lancashire.
- 2010–2011: Socio-cultural influences upon women’s perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding and associated maternity service provision.
- Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers:
- Crossland N., Thomson G. and Hall Moran V. Evaluation of Best Beginnings resources. UCL Digital Health and Behaviour Change. London, 2018.
- Crossland N., Thomson G. and Hall Moran V. Evaluation of Best Beginnings resources. Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Bio-Cultural Perspectives. Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria, 2017.
- Crossland N, Thomson G, Wood E, Nicolls C, Dykes F. Exploring the Impact of the Small Wonders Change Programme on Parenting and Infant Feeding Practices. Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Bio-cultural Perspectives. Grange-Over-Sands, 2015.
- Crossland N, Thomson G, Morgan H, Dykes F, Hoddinott P on behalf of the BIBS research team Breast pumps as an incentive for breastfeeding: a mixed methods investigation. At Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Bio-cultural Perspectives. Grange-Over-Sands, 2015.
- N Crossland, G Thomson, H Morgan, P Hoddinott, F Dykes on behalf of the BIBS research team. Incentives to stop smoking and start and continue breastfeeding: Service-user insights into barriers and facilitators. Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Bio-cultural Perspectives. Grange-Over-Sands 2013.
Telephone:+44 (0)1772 892794
Email: Email:Dr Nicola Crossland
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