Jenny McLeish
Health Services Researcher
Jenny is a Health Services Researcher (Qualitative Research) attached to the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU). Her main research interests are families’ experiences of maternity and neonatal care and the contribution of volunteer and peer support to women's wellbeing in the perinatal period.
She co-ordinates the National Teenage Pregnancy Midwifery Network and writes the Baby Buddy app for pregnant women and new parents at the charity Best Beginnings. Jenny is currently undertaking doctoral research at City, University of London on perinatal mental health peer support in the third sector.
Before joining NPEU in 2013, Jenny qualified as a barrister and then worked for many years in the third sector on policy, research, information and campaigning for disadvantaged and vulnerable families. Her work has included parents affected by inequalities as a result of youth, ethnicity, the asylum system, migration status, language, poverty, maternity discrimination, mental health and intellectual disabilities.