Semra Worrall

Background

About Semra Worrall

I am a Doctoral Academic Teacher and PhD student within the School of Psychology at the University of Liverpool. My research interests include perinatal mental health, preterm birth and maternal anxiety during the postpartum period. I’m July 2021, I graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Liverpool. My undergraduate dissertation focused on the relationship between postpartum anxiety and depression, and preterm birth; it was the first to measure anxiety in mothers of premature infants using a postpartum-specific measure of anxiety. In December 2022, I graduated from the University of Liverpool Master of Science in Research Methods in Psychology with Distinction. My master’s dissertation further built upon my previous work, exploring the relationship between gestational age, maternal anxiety, and stress in the NICU during the postpartum period. During my master’s degree, I undertook a paid Research Assistant role at the University of Liverpool, exploring the identification and measurement of postpartum anxiety in England, during which I managed the quantitative arm of the study in the form of a Delphi survey. My PhD research explores maternal anxiety and prematurity, further. Specifically, I aim to develop a robust measurement of postpartum anxiety specifically for use in mothers of preterm infants.