Dr Karen McLaughlin is a Clinical Midwife Specialist with 30 years experience and a midwifery academic and researcher currently teaching Midwifery at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her previous PhD research involved quantitative and qualitative methods and examined the management of asthma during pregnancy and the potential to translate new management methods into practice. This research has led to 11 publications to date, the development of clinical guidelines for antenatal asthma management and a globally available Asthma in pregnancy toolkit, for health practitioners, researchers and consumers.
Dr Mclaughlin has a passion for qualitative research methods and has used appreciative inquiry to examine the student midwife experience in order to build on current practices to ensure retention of student midwives and optimal experiences for student midwives and midwives. Dr McLaughlin's current research areas include examining asthma management in the postpartum period and it's association with breastfeeding and exploring perinatal mental health and models of maternity care.
Asthma is the most common chronic medical condition to affect pregnancy. For example, in Australia 12.7% of pregnant women have asthma. Poorly controlled asthma leading to exacerbation of symptoms can lead to poor maternal and neonatal outcomes such as preterm birth and low birth weight babies. Asthma in pregnancy can be unpredictable in that approximately 1/3 of women experience a worsening of their asthma symptoms with the other two thirds either experiencing an improvement of their asthma symptoms or no change. Recommendations for the management of asthma during pregnancy is clearly stated in clinical practice guidelines. These include regular review of asthma symptoms, having a multidisciplinary team approach to management, ensuring ongoing prescribed medication use and having an asthma action plan.
Previous research has identified the need for improved knowledge and awareness of asthma in pregnancy among health professionals and pregnant women. Innovative management techniques and educational resources are being developed and implemented to continue to meet these needs and to improve the outcomes for women and babies whose pregnancy is affected by asthma.
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