Wendy Peterson

Wendy Peterson is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, a Senior Scientist at l’Institut du Savoir Montfort and the Associate Director of the Centre for Research on Health and Nursing (CRHN).  Wendy’s program of research aims to improve the quality of maternal-newborn health services for mothers and their families. Wendy’s specific research interests focus on improving our understanding of the health care experiences of marginalized pregnant and postpartum women to inform the design of interventions to reduce disparities in access to health services and maternal-newborn health outcomes.

• Centre for Research on Health and Nursing (CRHN) 
• Institut du Savoir Montfort

• Pregnant and parenting mothers’ experiences of nursing care
• Nursing care of marginalized pregnant and postpartum women/families 
• Promotion of humanistic (low intervention) birth 
• Interprofessional primary maternity care teams 
• Perinatal health services 
• Pregnant and parenting adolescents 
• Qualitative & mixed methods 

Invited publications

• Wright, D.K., Peterson, W., & Gifford, W. (May 2020). Nurses’ Ethical Considerations during a Pandemic. Canadian Nurses Association. Ottawa ON https://www.cna-aiic.ca/en/policy-advocacy/advocacy-priorities/covid-19/covid-19-resources
• Salvador, A., Nault, J., McCoubrey, D., & Peterson, W. (May 2020). Montfort’s Postnatal Care at Home Program (MPCH Program): An innovative model shifting postpartum care from hospital to home. A program design & preliminary evaluation report. Submitted at the request of the Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing Department (MCA), World Health Organization.

Edited books

• Peterson, W., Armstrong, L.L., & Foulkes, M.A. (Eds.) (2018). Mothers, addiction and recovery: Finding meaning through the journey. Demeter Press, Ontario.

Selected Peer-reviewed articles  (*students)

• Larocque, C.*, Peterson, W.E., Squires, J.E., Mason-Ward, M., Mayhew, K., & Harrison, D. (2021). Family-centred care in the neonatal intensive care unit: a concept analysis and literature review. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, 27(6), 402-411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2021.06.014
• Reszel, J., Weiss, D., Darling, E.K., Sidney, D., Van Wagner, V., Soderstrom, B., Rogers, J., Holmberg, V., Peterson, W.E., Khan, B., Walker, M.C. & Sprague, A.E. (2021). Client experience with the Ontario Birth Center demonstration project. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 66(2): 174-184. doi 10.1111/jmwh.13164.
• Edwards, R.*, Cragg, B., Dunn, S. & Peterson, W.E. (2021) The breastfeeding and early motherhood experiences of older first-time mothers: A constructivist grounded theory study. Midwifery, (96).  doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2021.102945
• Quosdorf, A.*, Peterson, W.E., Rashotte, J., & Davies, B. (2020). Connecting with adolescent mothers: Perspectives of hospital-based perinatal nurses. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. 7:1-13.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2333393619900891
• Weiss, D., Fell, D.B., Sprague, A.E., Walker, M.C., Dunn, S., Reszel, J., Peterson, W.E., Coyle, D., &  Taljaard, M. (2019). Effect of implementation of the MOREOB program on adverse maternal and neonatal birth outcomes in Ontario, Canada: a retrospective cohort study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 19(151):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-019-2296-5   (shortened URL: https://rdcu.be/bAanD )
• Reszel, J., Sidney, D., Peterson, W.E., Darling, E.K., Van Wagner, V., Soderstrom, B., Rogers, J., Graves, E., Khan, B. & Sprague, A. (2018). The integration of Ontario birth centers into existing maternal-newborn services: Health care provider experiences. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 63(5), 541-549. doi:10.1111/jmwh.12883 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jmwh.12883
• Edwards, R.*, Peterson, W.E., Noel-Weiss, J., & Fortier, C. (2017). Factors influencing the breastfeeding practices of young mothers living in a maternity shelter: A qualitative study. Journal of Human Lactation, 33:2. 359-367. DOI: 10.1177/0890334416681496
• Friesen, K.*, Peterson, W.E., Squires, J., & Fortier, C. (2017). Validation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for use with Young Childbearing Women. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 25:1. 1-16. doi: 10.1891/1061-3749.25.1.E1
• Sword, W., Heaman, M., Peterson, W., Salvador, A., Akhtar-Danesh, N. & Bradford-Janke, A. (2015) Psychometric testing of the French language Quality of Prenatal Care Questionnaire.  Journal of Nursing Measurement. 23: 436-451.doi:10.1891/1061-3749.23.3.436
• Reszel, J.*, Peterson, W.E., & Moreau, D. (2014). Young women’s experiences of expected health behaviors during pregnancy: The importance of emotional support. Journal of Community Health Nursing. 31(198-211). doi: 10.1080/07370016.2014.958395
• Peterson, W.E., Sprague, A. E., Reszel, J., Walker, M., Fell, D., Perkins, S.L., Dunn, S., and Johnson, M. (2014). Women's perspectives of the fetal fibronectin testing process: a qualitative descriptive study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 14(190).  doi:10.1186