Maralyn Foureur

Maralyn is the joint Professor of Nursing & Midwifery Research at University of Newcastle & Hunter New England Local Health District. Her primary focus is building the research capacity of nurses and midwives of HNELHD and Translational Research. Prior to joining UON she was Professor of Midwifery at University of Technology Sydney for over a decade. She is a leading midwifery practice and midwifery education researcher, with an interest in keeping birth normal to improve women/families’ experiences of birthing and improving birth outcomes for mothers and babies. She has a particular interest in neuroscience and architecture in relation to birth unit design, and prenatal and perinatal influences on child and adult health. Maralyn is also an adjunct professor of midwifery at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) and at the University of Southern Denmark. Her work on models of care was instrumental in establishing the effectiveness of continuity of midwifery care on maternal and infant outcomes(under her previous surname of Rowley); now a major focus of health service redesign across Australia and, internationally, and established in policy as the gold standard care model. Her research on Birth Unit Design, involving neuroscience, architecture and childbirth neurophysiology has been translated into the building of Royal North Shore Maternity Hospital, NSW, Royal Hobart Hospital TAS, John Hunter Hospital Newcastle NSW, Singleton Hospital, NSW and informs the design of many new maternity units across Australia, and in Denmark. Her work is also included in the Australian Health Facility Guidelines to inform the renovation and new-build of maternity hospitals Australia-wide. Maralyn has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications in top tier, midwifery, nursing, medical and social science journals such as Midwifery and Women and Birth.

Christine Catling

Christine has been a midwife for 27 years. Currently she is an NHMRC Research Fellow investigating Clinical Supervision in midwifery. She was previously the Director of Midwifery Studies within the Faculty of Health at UTS. Currently she coordinates the National Publicly-funded Homebirth Consortium, is the co-lead of the Maternal, Newborn and Women’s Clinical Academic Group for SPHERE, and is the chair of the ACM midwifery history project. When she’s not doing all that stuff she likes to wander the beaches of the south coast, where she lives, and plan off-grid holidays!

Virginia Stulz 

A/Prof Virginia Stulz is currently working in a conjoint position between Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District and Western Sydney University. Virginia is currently Chief Investigator on one major research project in two Local Health Districts of NSW that improves birth options for women. She recently worked in NSW across four Local Health Districts on a major research project in an effort to improve and explore student midwives’ experiences. She mentors and supports midwives in the local health district with their research projects. She collaborates with other university academics across Australia and New Zealand as a member of the Trans Tasman Midwifery Education Committee (TTMEC) and is currently the Chair for the TTMEC. She is currently leading two national research projects with this consortium that focus on midwives’ experiences during COVID-19 and exploring characteristics of support within new graduate programmes within Australia. In collaboration with other researchers, she has published 18 peer-reviewed journal articles over the past five years in areas of complementary therapies, midwifery education, factors affecting birth practices gender-based violence and women’s health. Virginia is currently supervising five higher degree research students as a primary supervisor and co-supervising three students.