40 | Birth in the Time of Covid and Maternity Care in Australia: Hannah Dahlen

VBAC Birth Stories in discussion with Professor of Midwifery Hannah Dahlen on how Covid-19 restrictions are affecting birthing women in Australia and what women can do to make the most of their birth experience and postpartum in these trying times. We speak about the impact of birth restrictions on migrant women and their families, domestic violence screening and how antenatal care has been affected. We also talk about the state of maternity care in Australia and how we can influence policy change to improve this- where to from here and what is the hope for maternity care in Australia?

Biography (Source: Western Sydney University):

Hannah Dahlen is Professor of Midwifery, Assocate Dean Research and HDR and Mdiwifery Discipline Lead in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. Hannah is a leading midwifery researcher in Australia, with an international reputation as an outstanding midwifery scholar. This is demonstrated through publication of over 200 papers and book chapters, despite only being an active researcher for the past 10 years and maintaining clinical practice. Hannah has given papers at over 100 conferences and seminars since in the past 5 years with half of these being invited national and international keynote addresses.

Hannah has developed strong international research partnerships for research projects that are having significant impacts in the field of maternity care and midwifery globally. She has been a co-investigator on the European Union Grant Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) Action Project led from the University of Central Lancashire. In 2011 Hannah along with Professor Downe (UCLAN) and Professor Holly Kennedy Powel (Yale University) formed an international research group called EPIIC (Epigenetic impact of Childbirth). Hannah has international collaborations with researchers at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN-UK), VU Medical Centre Amsterdam, Lund University (Sweden) and Yale (USA).

Hannah’s research interests fall under two major themes:

1. Keeping birth normal, which includes research into birth positions, perineal comfort and trauma during second stage, birth experiences of first time mothers at home and in hospital, use of NSW and National perinatal data to look at maternal and perinatal outcomes in different models of care and place of birth and vaginal birth after caesarean.

2. Health service/policy development, which includes publications on homebirth, birth centres and freebirth, human rights and birth trauma, the development of a midwifery initiated oral health service for pregnant women, service engagement and outcomes for infants and their young mothers, analysis of media depictions of midwives obstetricians and birth, the use of doulas in the health service and outcomes for low risk women giving birth in private and public hospitals.

~ Notes ~

The Birth Experience Study:

https://surveywesternsydney.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d7lb1dyOczveOxw

Hannah Dahlen Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/hannahgracedahlen

Birth in the time of Covid Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/birthinthetimeofcovid/

The Birth Experience Study Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/BirthExperienceStudy/

Maternity Choices Australia:

https://www.maternitychoices.org

Maternity Consumer Network:

https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au

Post Natal Depression/Anxiety support: If you or anyone you know is affected by PND symptoms particularly at this time of COVID-19 please don't hesitate to contact th