Dr Margaret Charnley

Job Title: LECTURER IN NUTRITION and FOOD SCIENCES
Department: Nutrition and Food Science
Extension: 0151 291 3592
Email: charnlm@hope.ac.uk

Following completion of a BSc (Hons) Nutrition at Liverpool John Moores University, I was fortunate enough to commence a PhD exploring the effects of maternal nutrition on pregnancy in women living with obesity. The project was called Fit for Birth and was in collaboration with Liverpool Women's Hospital and University of Liverpool. The aim was to explore the effects of gestational weight change on pregnancy outcomes in women with a BMI of 30 and over. Data were collected on women with regards to weight change, and birth weight as well as adverse pregnancy outcomes. This included maternal effects such as gestational diabetes, hypertension and pre-eclampsia and off-spring effects such as low birth weight, macrosomia, shoulder dystocia and other congenital effects.

In a sub-phase of the project, data were also collected pertaining to physical activity, quality of life and sleep apnoea in addition to maternal dietary intake. Further research explored the lived experience of women living with obesity with a view to explaining dietary behaviours and food choices that led to their overweight and subsequent obesity. Further post-doctoral work has investigated the nutritional knowledge and experiences of practicing midwives in delivering weight management and healthy eating advice to pregnant women and the experiences of pregnant health service users in receiving said advice. Future research will explore the preferred mediums facilitating the delivery of consistent and reliable healthy eating advice. I am a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition [RNutr] and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy [FHEA]. My teaching expertise is around Nutritional Assessment and Nutrition Throughout the Lifecycle. Orchid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7936-9841
Most recent publications 
Abayomi J.C.; Charnley M.S.; Cassidy, L.; McCann M.T.; Jones J.; Wright M. & Newson L.M. (2018) A Patient and Public Involvement investigation into heathly eating and weight management advice during pregnancy. International Journal for Quality Health Care 2020, 1-7 doi:10.1093/intqhc/mxzz081
Charnley M.S.; Newson, L.M; Weeks A. & Abayomi J.C. (2021) Pregnant women living with obesity: a cross-sectional observational study of dietary quality and pregnancy outcomes Nutrients 13, 1652 doi.org/10.3390/nu13051652
Charnley M.S.; Newson L.M; Weeks A. & Abayomi J.C (2024) A qualitative exploration of the experiences of pregnant women living with obesity and accessing antenatal care Plos One [pending]