Esther Sharma is a qualitative researcher interested in the maternal health of underserved women and creative research methods.

Esther is a currently working on the ethnographic component of a NIHR-funded study evaluating the Core Competency Framework to improve multi-professional practice in maternity and neonatal care.

Esther has completed her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, exploring the perinatal experiences of Afghan refugee women while making state-unauthorised journeys through Serbia into the European Union. She has previously worked as a Research Midwife at the University of Bedfordshire, developing, implementing, and evaluating a community-based intervention to increase timely initiation of antenatal care.

Previous to working in research, Esther has worked in a range of roles, from clinical midwifery to NHS management, and within third sector organisations.

Enquiring about potential PhD supervision

Esther is open to co-supervising PhD students on topics of refugee / migrant (maternal) health, equity in, and experiences of, maternity care.

If you’re thinking of applying for one of our PhD programmes and are looking for potential supervisors, please email nmpc_pgr_enquiries@kcl.ac.uk listing the names of the supervisors you’ve identified as having expertise in your chosen area, along with your CV and a short research proposal. 

Our Postgraduate Research Team will contact supervisors on your behalf and get back to you. If you have any queries in the meantime, please use the email address above, rather than contacting potential PhD supervisors directly, because they are unable to respond to initial enquiries.