Bethan Hatherall is a co-investigator on the REACH Pregnancy Programme and is leading a strand of the research programme which focusses on strengthening women’s involvement in planning and improving maternity services. The strand includes a systematic review of the national and international evidence on the most effective ways to involve maternity service users in shaping services, a survey to find out how maternity services across the country have involved local women and case studies of successful approaches. Bethan joined IHHD as a research fellow in July 2010 to work on a research project exploring what prevents and enables access to antenatal care services early in pregnancy for women living in East London. Complementing this project, Bethan was involved in further research on access to and experiences of pregnancy services with a specific focus on women of Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani ethnicity living in East London. Prior to joining IHHD, Bethan held a research post with the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development at the University of Leeds. In this post she worked primarily on a multi-country qualitative research study investigating the causes of TB-related stigma in South Asia, with a grant from ESRC-DFID. She has also held a post with the University of Southampton, coordinating a large research project investigating condom use practices amongst young people in the UK. As well as having worked for academic institutions in the field of health research, Bethan has also worked in this field internationally for non-governmental organisations in Ghana, Malawi, Eritrea and South Sudan. Bethan has a PhD from the University of Leeds for her thesis entitled “Causes of tuberculosis stigma in South Asia – Developing explanatory theories through multi-country qualitative research”. She also has a BA (Hons) in Anthropology (University of Durham) and an MSc in Health Promotion (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).

Qualitative and mixed methods research Patient and public involvement Pregnancy and maternity services Stigma and tuberculosis