Rose Meades

Dr. Rose Meades is a part-time Research Fellow at the Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research within the School of Health and Psychological Sciences at City, University of London. With a background in clinical health psychology, she specializes in maternal mental health, particularly perinatal anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicidality. Her interdisciplinary research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate mental health screening tools, women's experiences of maternity care, and the implementation of perinatal mental health services.

Her educational background includes a PhD in Psychology from the University of Sussex, an MSc in Experimental Psychology, and a BA (Hons) in History, all from the same institution. She has held prior academic roles as a Research Assistant and Associate Lecturer at The Open University.

Her research interests focus on:

• Measurement and diagnostic accuracy of perinatal mental health tools
• Women’s experiences of anxiety, depression, and suicidality during pregnancy and postpartum
• Acceptability and implementation of mental health screening in maternity settings
• Induction of labour and maternal embodiment
• Service evaluation in maternal and child health

Her recent publications reflect a strong trend in developing and validating screening instruments for perinatal mental health, particularly suicidality and anxiety, using mixed-methods designs including Delphi studies, cognitive interviews, and longitudinal cohort analyses. Her work emphasizes patient and practitioner perspectives to ensure clinical relevance and acceptability.

Scientific contributions include:

• Key role in NIHR-funded projects on perinatal anxiety assessment
• Collaboration on international studies, including research in Brazil on postpartum depression
• Development of evidence synthesis frameworks for mental health implementation (MATRIx)
• Authorship of book chapters on perinatal screening

She supervises research students, such as Liz Dudeney, and collaborates extensively with leading researchers like Susan Ayers and Rose McCabe. Her work is published in high-impact journals including BMC Public Health, Frontiers in Public Health, Women and Birth, and Archives of Suicide Research.