Overview
The Global Women’s and Newborn’s Health Group is co-led by Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Joshua Vogel. The Group aims to be a leading entity in the Asia-Pacific region for conducting research on women’s and newborn’s health in low-resource settings.
The Group’s objectives are to:
Develop and build meaningful research collaborations:
- With individuals, institutions and agencies in low-resource settings across the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus in the Pacific Island Countries (PICT).
- Cross-disciplinary collaborations within the Burnet Institute on priority women’s and newborn’s health topics
- With collaborating institutions in Australia, working on women’s and newborn’s health research activities and topics relevant to the broader Asia-Pacific region
Prioritise novel maternal and newborn research activities:
- That address priority knowledge gaps affecting women’s and newborn’s health in low-resource settings;
- That are likely to generate a significant public health impact;
- That affect women, newborn and families and the related health workforces in the Asia-Pacific region; and
- Where we have a competitive advantage over other groups and organizations to successfully execute the required work
Plan, execute and publish primary research and knowledge synthesis activities:
- That develop, test and evaluate the effectiveness of tools, interventions and strategies to improve access to, and quality of, pregnancy, labour and birth and postpartum care in low-resource settings; and
- That provide the necessary evidence to inform global and national guidelines, practice and policy;
Provide technical guidance to support effective translation of evidence into women’s and newborn health programmes, that will improve availability and uptake of lifesaving care in low-resource settings and strengthen midwifery education and practice across the Asia-Pacific region.
Develop research capacity of students and early-career researchers in women’s and newborn’s health, in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region
The Group’s areas of focus are:
- Major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, particularly: prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, peripartum infections, abortion, indirect causes and nutritional issues
- Reducing preventable stillbirth
- Addressing the major causes of perinatal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, particularly: preterm birth, low birth weight and neonatal sepsis
- Improving the coverage and quality of antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care, with an emphasis on timely, respectful, people-centred care
- Capacity building, development and strengthening of the relevant health workforces and health systems especially midwives
