About
Midwife Connect was founded by a registered NHS midwife with experience supporting individuals throughout pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood.
This work highlighted the need for greater time, continuity, and personalised care, particularly when balancing pregnancy with work and everyday demands.
Midwife Connect was developed to meet that need in a way that works alongside both healthcare services and the workplace.
Our approach
Midwife Connect provides midwife-led, non-clinical support, designed to work alongside NHS maternity care, not replace it.
We focus on providing the time, continuity, and reassurance employees need to feel supported throughout pregnancy, maternity leave, and return to work.
Our approach is:
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Midwife-led and grounded in clinical experience
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Designed to complement NHS care
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Non-clinical, safe, and appropriate
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Confidential and independent
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Consistent across the full journey
Supporting both the individual and the organisation.
Why Midwife Connect was created
Working as a midwife, I saw how much of a difference it made when women were cared for by someone they knew and trusted; someone who understood their circumstances, had time to listen, and was there consistently throughout their pregnancy.
But I also saw how difficult that could be to achieve within NHS maternity services, where appointments are necessarily focused and continuity with the same midwife isn't always possible.
At the same time, women were navigating so much beyond their maternity appointments. Pregnancy often coincides with a significant period of change at work; deciding when and how to share the news, managing symptoms alongside a job, preparing for maternity leave and, eventually, finding a way back into working life.
Those two parts of a woman's experience are closely connected, yet they are often supported separately. Midwife Connect was created to bring them closer together, combining an understanding of maternity with an understanding of the realities of working through pregnancy and becoming a parent.
Claire Ashton, Midwife & Co-Founder
Meet our founders
Registered Midwife & Co-Founder
Claire Ashton
Claire is a registered midwife with experience across maternity services in England and Wales, with a particular interest in continuity of care, informed decision-making and the wider social and workplace factors that shape women's experiences of pregnancy and early parenthood.
After graduating with First-Class Honours in Midwifery, Claire began her career in Bristol before joining a dedicated homebirth team, supporting women with personalised care throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. After moving to Wales, she joined a continuity-of-care team, providing caseload-based maternity care within the community.
Claire is also a Newborn Life Support (NLS) Instructor for the Resuscitation Council UK, and has undertaken additional specialist training in hypnobirthing, birth biomechanics and physiological breech birth.
She is currently completing an MSc in Global Maternal Health at City St George's, University of London, where she was awarded the Dean's Scholarship for Academic and Clinical Excellence. Her postgraduate study builds on her interest in health inequalities and the wider influences on women's experiences and outcomes during pregnancy and early parenthood.
Co-Founder
Miles Ashton
Miles is a co-founder of Midwife Connect, bringing experience in finance, strategy and developing innovative solutions to complex social challenges. His career has spanned the public, private and social sectors, with a particular focus on turning ideas with positive social impact into sustainable, scalable models.
Alongside Midwife Connect, Miles leads work on local investment at the Green Finance Institute, bringing together local authorities, investors and financial institutions to develop new approaches to financing economic, social and environmental outcomes.
His previous experience includes leading the UK rollout of a venture-backed HealthTech organisation and working in sustainable finance at ABN AMRO in the Netherlands, where he specialised in developing programmes designed to deliver both financial returns and positive social impact.
At Midwife Connect, Miles brings this experience to the strategy and development of the business; helping build partnerships, shape a sustainable model and ensure the service can grow while remaining focused on the impact it was created to achieve.
Miles holds an MSc in Finance from the University of Amsterdam and a BEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol.