Dr. Denise Tiran, HonDUniv FRCM MSc RM PGCEA, is a freelance midwifery lecturer and internationally renowned authority on complementary therapies in midwifery, having pioneered the subject as an academic and professional specialism since the early 1980s. In this episode, Denise talks about her 'Aha' moment that led her to combine work in hospitals and universities with complementary therapies.

She is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Education Director for her company, Expectancy, which provides a unique range of accredited complementary therapy courses for midwives in the UK and a register of midwives offering complementary therapy services privately across the UK, working under Expectancy's Licensed Consultancy scheme. Denise has eighteen years of experience managing her own business and was runner-up in the 2015 Kent Women in Business Awards. She now mentors midwives wanting to set up in private complementary therapy practice via Expectancy's Licensed Consultancy scheme, developing a growing network of midwives trained to use complementary therapies safely and now offering services privately around the UK.

Denise has built her reputation of almost 40 years on a strong commitment to safety, professional accountability, and evidence-based practice. She is highly acclaimed and was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Greenwich in 2020 and a prestigious Fellowship from the Royal College of Midwives in 2018 for her work. Expectancy won the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Award for services to complementary healthcare education in 2012.

She regularly teaches in Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere overseas and is a Visiting Professor at the Qingdao Huikang School of Nursing in Shanghai, China. She has taught almost 4000 midwives and student midwives about complementary therapies and is a frequent international conference speaker.

Denise previously worked as a midwifery lecturer at the University of Greenwich, London. Having trained in several therapies, including massage, aromatherapy, and reflex zone therapy (clinical reflexology) and studied herbal medicine, homoeopathy, and acupuncture, she was given the opportunity to develop and manage the UK's first practice-based BSc (Hons) degree in Complementary Therapies (1992-2004). As part of her university work, she established a complementary therapies clinic at a maternity unit in southeast London, a teaching clinic for student midwives and complementary therapy students. Denise treated almost 6000 expectant mothers with complementary therapies during this time, and the clinic was highly commended in the Prince of Wales's Awards for Healthcare in London in 2001.

She has written numerous seminal textbooks on complementary therapies in midwifery, over eighty professional journal papers, and three books for expectant mothers. She has revised the last six editions of the world-famous Bailliere's Midwives' Dictionary (14th edition due 2022). Her textbooks include Aromatherapy in Midwifery Practice (2016), Complementary Therapies in Pregnancy and Childbirth: an evidence-based approach (2018); The Business of Maternity Care: a guide for midwives and doulas setting up in private practice (2019), and Using Natural Remedies Safely in Pregnancy and Childbirth (2021). Her latest book, Complementary Therapies for Postdates Pregnancy, is due for publication in late 2022. She is an Associate Editor of the Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice professional journal. She has revised the last four Position Statements on complementary therapies for the Royal College of Midwives. Denise is a consultant on maternity issues for the Federation of Holistic Therapists and complementary therapies for the Federation of Antenatal Educators. She is also frequently consulted for advice on the professional accountability of midwives by the Royal Colleges of Midwives and Nursing and the Nursing and...