About OPPMP and postpartum health

Dr Catherine Quarini

Catherine qualified as a doctor from Oxford University in 2007. She worked in hospital medicine and general practice, before specialising in public health and psychiatry. Her interest in health policy and the evidence behind medical research grew, and she spent several years working as Senior Editor for the Lancet Psychiatry medical journal. She also completed the Graduate Diploma in Law, and then took up the position of Medicolegal Director at an international law firm where she leads research into women’s health issues. Alongside her legal role, she founded OPPMP in 2026.

Her work at The Lancet involved assessing medical research across a variety of subjects, and she realised that there was a gap in both the understanding of postpartum health problems, and the services available to treat them. Subsequently, working in this area of medical law showed her that postpartum health issues are often over-looked or misdiagnosed, sometimes leaving women with years of unnecessary pain or interventions.

Since having her own children, she has had numerous discussions with women suffering from medical problems resulting from pregnancy or giving birth who have had unsatisfactory interactions with healthcare systems. Many women have been left feeling that they have not been listened to or that their symptoms were not understood. Most felt that the reasons for this were partly because medical appointments are generally too brief to discuss complex postpartum health conditions, and partly due to a lack of specialised clinics in this area. Catherine set up Oxford Postpartum Medical Practice to address this unmet need.