Birth, Bonding and Baby Behaviour

Carmen Power is a writer, researcher, educator, and consultant specialising in the interconnected fields of childbirth, perinatal mental health, parent-infant bonding, and infant behaviour, temperament, and development. With a background in Psychology and Education, she is also a trained doula, hypnobirthing practitioner, and early years education specialist.

Carmen holds a PhD in Public Health, where her research focused on mothers' experiences of childbirth and baby behaviour, viewed from the perspectives of both health professionals and mothers. She is actively involved in several international collaborations, including with the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology (SRIP); the TREASURE European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Action), which investigates maternal perinatal stress and adverse outcomes in offspring; and ongoing projects on Humanising Childbirth and the Polarisation of Maternity Care with medical sociologist Professor Sue Ziebland and leading midwifery professors Lesley Page (CBE), Jane Sandall, and Soo Downe.

In addition to her academic work, Carmen provides consultancy, research, analysis, and report writing on childbirth, parent-infant bonding, and infant social-emotional development for charities such as the Parent Infant Foundation, the Royal Foundation, and the Birth Trauma Association. She regularly presents at international conferences on midwifery, reproductive health, and infant psychology, and mentors students across the UK in Psychology, Education, and Public Health.

Carmen is an active member of the World Association of Infant Mental Health and has served on the committee of the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology for several years. Her particular expertise lies in mothers' experiences of childbirth, perinatal mental health, parent-infant bonding, and babies' behavioural and developmental responses to birth.