Our people
Together, every member of Wellbeing of Women plays a vital part in safeguarding the future health of women, babies and their families.
About us
We save and change the lives of women, girls and babies. Led by women's voices, we improve health and wellbeing through research, education and advocacy.
Our focus
We focus on women's health across the life course, from menstrual problems, endometriosis, fibroids and the menopause to issues and complications in fertility, pregnancy and birth including miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth to gynaecological cancers.
Our organisation
Our Board of Trustees chaired by Professor Dame Lesley Regan meets quarterly to ensure the charity is carrying out its purposes through strategy setting, grant making and fundraising with a commitment to the principles of good governance.
An executive team, led by Janet Lindsay, undertakes day to day activities. The board is supported by separate investment and audit committees made up of trustees and independent members and our wholly independent Research Advisory Committee (RAC), 20 leading experts who advise on research strategy and rigorously review applications for board approval.
Read our recently launched Five-Year strategy.
Download our Annual Report and Accounts to 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Our history
In 1964, after witnessing the grief of a young man whose wife died during childbirth, Obstetrician Professor Will Nixon of University College Hospital set up the Childbirth Research Centre to stop women and babies dying in pregnancy and childbirth.
He and a team of well-respected obstetricians, gynaecologists and business partners registered it as a charity later that year. In 1972, we changed our name to Birthright and in the 1980s, Diana, Princess of Wales, became an active and committed patron. We expanded our reach to all areas of women’s reproductive health, becoming Wellbeing of Women in 2004.
Achievements
1964
Professor Will Nixon establishes what will later become Wellbeing of Women
1972
We establish the importance of taking folic acid during pregnancy
1973
We discover that early contact between mothers and babies in intensive care is possible
1974
A number of our projects establish the vital role of ultrasound in pregnancy in monitoring the health of the baby in the womb
1978
We establish the use of laser treatment to remove abnormal cells in the cervix instead of cutting out the tissue
1978
We develop a chemical (surfactant) that can help premature babies breathe and survive
1981
We start important early research into monitoring and analysing foetuses’ heartbeats
1985
We fund early work into a new method for identifying women at risk of osteoporosis which went on to be used routinely in HRT clinics
1990
We test laparoscopy as a treatment for endometriosis
1991
We begin research which leads to discovery of the link between HPV and cervical cancer
1996
We fund research which brings about the first test to predict the outcome of IVF
2009
We create the Baby Bio Bank, 7000 tissue samples from ‘trios’ consisting of a mother, father and baby, used for birth complications research
2011
Our clinical trial results in use of BOTOX to treat overactive bladder syndrome
2015
We establish international hub the Harris-Wellbeing Preterm Birth Centre to aid research into premature birth
2017
We discover that taking vitamin D supplements could prevent pregnancy complications
2017
We pioneer using high, targeted doses of radiation to treat patients with gynaecological cancers previously thought to be untreatable
2019
We discover a potential non-surgical, non-hormonal cure for endometriosis