Women's and children's health

Burnet has helped lead major progress on women’s and children’s health.

Building global knowledge of maternal and child health

We helped launch the Global Maternal and Newborn Health Platform. As part of this, we're gathering data from more than 90,000 women and their newborns in 74 hospitals. We're building a knowledge base of women's experiences to improve childbirth and newborn care across the globe.

For more than 10 years, we’ve help lead the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies program. The program is a wide-ranging set of studies in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, that explores common issues with maternal and child health as well as strategies to respond. The program addresses health risks like childhood stunting and nutrition, as well as sexually transmitted infections and newborn sepsis.

Informing policies and initiatives in our region

Using biostatistics models, we developed the Optima Nutrition tool. This tool is used by the World Bank, governments and other organisations to analyse how they can efficiently improve childhood nutrition. Our research also informed the United Nations Pacific Regional Roadmap for Triple Elimination.

We've contributed to influential reports around the world, including reports published by the World Health Organization. These include:

• 'State of the world’s midwifery’ report
• ‘Born too soon’ preterm birth report 
• ‘Midwives scope of practice’ report.

Developing guidelines for better healthcare

We work directly with women, children and health workers to better understand their needs, and we develop evidence-based interventions to improve maternal and child health. These include education programs, tools, diagnostics and policy guidance. We test these interventions with clinical trials and world-leading studies.

Co-design with communities

People with direct experience often know what they need in order to thrive. We use a ‘co-design’ approach by partnering with local women, health workers and community members. We work with those most affected to ensure that research and interventions are effective.

Training and education across Asia and the Pacific

We support midwifery education and training across the Pacific, including in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. We also develop workshops and campaigns to increase awareness and delivery of important childhood vaccines. We run leadership training for women, supporting them with skills to advocate for better health in their communities.

Tools for ‘triple elimination’

There are 3 major infections that can pass from parent to infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. These are HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B virus. Efforts to prevent 'mother-to-child transmission' of these infections are called 'triple elimination'. We work with partners to develop toolkits, guidelines and systems that help countries reach their triple elimination goals.

Tests and diagnostics

Our lab researchers are working on new ways to detect or diagnose disease. We're also looking for indicators (biomarkers) that could be linked to vaginal inflammation, HIV, preterm birth and other health risks.

Leading world-first studies for women and children

Through global collaboration, we lead studies that advance our knowledge of women’s and children’s health. This includes world-first studies on:

• maternal sleep position and stillbirth
• adolescent menstrual health
• pre-eclampsia risk-screening and prevention 
• new medicines for pregnancy-related conditions
• hepatitis B treatment. 

Hundreds of women continue to die each day from pregnancy or childbirth complications. Many of these deaths are easily preventable. There’s still work to do to scale up our interventions and address barriers to women’s health, maternal health and child health. At Burnet, we’re continuing to explore how aspects of sex and gender impact health and social outcomes among people who face marginalisation and discrimination.