Fran McConville qualified as a midwife and a nurse, has a BSc in Zoology and an MSc in Health Economics. After being a VSO midwife in Bangladesh in the mid-1980’s, Fran spent much of her career in sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health and gender in South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East, working with a range of NGO’s and UN agencies and as a Health Adviser to the UK department of international development (DFID).
Fran is currently the Midwifery Adviser to the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, providing technical and policy support to the 194 Member States. Fran lives with her partner and they have three grownup sons, all born at home with the compassionate expert care of midwives. She is passionate about the rights of women, newborns and their families to have access to quality midwifery care everywhere, and ensuring that the care provided is based not only on existing evidence but on knowledge that challenges assumptions and arises from asking different questions.
