ABOUT

Kim Thomas

I have worked as a freelance journalist since 1999. I am also the CEO of the Birth Trauma Association, a charity supporting parents psychologically affected by traumatic birth. At the beginning of 2024, I stopped taking commissions in order to focus on the work of the first parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma, and wrote the inquiry report, which was published on 13 May 2024 and received extensive media coverage.

I haven’t yet decided whether I still start taking commissions again, but below is an account of the kind of work I do, and the publications I’ve written for.

As a journalist, I specialise in producing sparkling copy about health, education and social care. My work appears regularly in national newspapers and business publications. When it comes to copywriting, I’ve turned my hand to customer magazines, websites, marketing brochures and lesson plans for a range of corporates and charities. My 2013 book Birth Trauma has received glowing reviews on Amazon, and a second edition was published in September 2020.

The Guardian is one of my biggest clients, but I’ve also written for the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Medium and numerous specialist publications such as the BMJ, Digital Health, Computing, Practical Patient Care, Public Finance and Acuity, a CPD magazine for optometrists. Although most of my journalism involves writing news and features, I’ve also published opinion pieces in the Spectator and The Critic.

I have a particular interest in childbirth and postnatal mental health issues. For five years, between 2009 and 2014, I edited Perspective, a continuing professional development magazine for NCT practitioners, featuring articles about pregnancy, childbirth and parenting.

In April 2022, I published two books. Postnatal PTSD: a Guide for Health Professionals fills in a gap in the market, using a mix of research evidence and personal testimonies to explain what postnatal PTSD is and how it affects the people who experience it. It will, I hope, prove invaluable to midwives, obstetricians, GPs, health visitors and any other health professional who works with new mothers.

The second book, Broadmoor Women: Tales from Britain’s First Criminal Lunatic Asylum, tells the stories of seven women who spent time in Broadmoor in the late nineteenth century. Most had killed a close relative, but were found to be insane at trial. Their individual stories are both fascinating and tragic, and shed light on the era’s changing attitude to criminal lunacy and the experiences of women with severe mental illness. The book is an expanded version of a dissertation I wrote as part of a Master’s degree in English local history at the University of Oxford in 2019.

I am currently working on a book about children admitted to lunatic asylums in the nineteenth century.

As well as working as a journalist, I enjoy taking on copywriting commissions, which over the years have included everything from techy white papers for big-name corporates to school lesson plans for an educational charity.  Copywriting clients in recent years have included the London Business School, the University of Oxford’s continuing education department and e4h, a specialist health copywriting agency. Future Care Capital, a health think tank, and is a regular client.

Contact me