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Helen Elden

Professor/Nurse Midwife

Diagnostics, Acute and Critical Care
Telephone
+46 31-786 23 54
+46 766-18 23 54
Mail
helen.elden@gu.se
Visiting address
Arvid Wallgrens backe hus 1 och 2
41346 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 457
40530 Göteborg

About Helen Elden

Helen is an associate professor in health care sciences, specialized in reproductive and perinatal health, a senior lecturer and the research group leader for the Sexual Reproductive and perinatal health research group: https://www.gu.se/forskning/sexuell-reproduktiv-och-perinatal-halsa. at the Reproductive and perinatal health CAE (Complete academic environment) including education, research and collaboration at the institution of health and care sciences, the Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg. She defended her thesis ‘’Treatment Modalities for Pelvic Girdle pain in Pregnant Women’’ in 2008.

She has long clinical experience as a midwife and is currently working as a senior consultant university hospital midwife at the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Sahlgrenska university hospital, Gothenburg.

Helen has been the project leader for four randomised controlled trials of treatments effects for pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy and was in the steering group and responsible for patient reported outcomes and patient reported experiences in SWEPIS, the Swedish postterm induction study. She is is currently in the steering committee for two big national multicenter RCTs.

Her main research interest is: Acupuncture; pelvic girdle pain in relation to pregnancy, treatment strategies for post-term pregnancy (The Swedish Postterm InductionStudy, SWEPIS), induction of labour (OutPatientIndutiON, OPTION study. https://www.optionstudien.se), pregnancy and childbirth as a political process (PREGDEM, www.pregdem.se ), preeclampsia (GO-PROVE) https://www.preeclampsiaresearch.com ), un-documented pregnant women’s experiences, obstetric triage of pregnant and newly delivered women (the Gothenburg Obstetric Triage System, GOTS). She is also the responsible researcher for the Swedish group in the IMAgiNE EURO project (Improving MAternal Newborn care, www.burlo.trieste.it ) i.e., views and experiences of women giving birth and health workers involved in maternal and newborn care during the covid-19 pandemic in 20 countries in Europe.

She has been the main supervisor for two PhD students and is currently the main supervisor for one Post doc, (Samuel Nambile Cumber, African mens involvement in pregnancy and childbirth) one PhD student (Lilja Thorgeirsdottir in the GO-PROVE project) and co-supervisor for two PhD students (Linnea Lindroos in GOTS, Gothenburg obstetric triage system and Helene Sangskär in OPTION, OutPatientIndutiON, OPTION).

The research projects are national and international multiprofessional research projects: PREGDEM (with Political sciences at University of Gothenburg, Mcill University in Canada and Trinity College, Ireland), SWEPIS (11 hospitals in Sweden), OPTION (33 hospitals in Sweden), The GOthenburg-PReeclampsiaadVerseEffect, GOPROVE-project (Uppsala university, Stellenboch university, Cape town, South Africa. University of Melbourne, Australia. University Bio-Bio, Concepción, Chile. Baylor College of medicine in Houston, Texas, USA. University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, University of Leicester, UK. The IMAgiNE EURO project: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; France; Germany; Italy; Israel; Latvia; Luxemburg, Norway; Poland; Romania; Russia; Serbia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

She is a member in the national ethics committee' and in The Staf portal at Sahlgrenska academy. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. She is a course leader and gives lectures about Ethics, research methodology, pain mechanism and pain-relieving methods on advanced levels e.g. The Midwifery program, The Master program in Reproductive and perinatal health and in PhD courses both at the University of Gothenburg and in Primary care in Vastra Gotaland. She is ’’ämnesföreträdare’, ie., responsible for the development of Reproductive and perinatal health in education and research at the institution.

The Programme in Midwifery Science leads to a Postgraduate Diploma in Midwifery. Upon completion of the programme, the student can apply for a licence as a midwife with the National Board of Health and Welfare. The programme also provides the basis for completing a one-year master’s degree. Continued studies are offered to achieve a full two-year master's degree in the main field of study. A few places in the programme are reserved for achieving a full two-year master's degree. The Master program in Reproductive and perinatal health is the only available in Sweden.

Keywords: Acupuncture; childbirth; childbirth experiences; ethics; induction of labour; obstetrics; obstetric triage system, patient reported outcomes (PROMS); patient reported experiences (PREMS); pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain; prolonged pregnancy, preeclampsia, randomised controlled trials; qualitative research.