About Bev

Dr Beverley Chalmers has dedicated her life to examining pregnancy and birth in difficult social, political, economic and religious settings.  These include women giving birth under Apartheid in South Africa; women having babies in the former Soviet Union under Communism; women with prior experience of Female Genital Mutilation giving birth in Canada; women giving birth under Nazi rule; and women giving birth in highly medicalized settings.

Bev is an Award Winning Author. Her book “Birth, Sex and Abuse: Women’s Voices Under Nazi Rule” was awarded the 2015 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Holocaust Literature, a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award in 2016, and a Canadian Jewish Literary Award in Holocaust Literature in 2016. She has two doctoral degrees: a Doctorate of Science in Medicine (DSc (Med)) and a PhD in Psychology. She has held professorial appointments in both the Medical and Social Sciences on two continents.

Bev has served, for many years, as a maternal and newborn health consultant for numerous United Nations and other global aid agencies. She has played a considerable role in the development and implementation of global perinatal health policy and practices, primarily through her activities at the World Health Organization and UNICEF as well as with other International Aid Agencies. She has undertaken over 140 international health promotion activities in more than 20 countries.

She has over 280 academic publications in the field of perinatal health, including a number of books and book chapters and has given over 445 presentations, worldwide, on these subjects.