Hannah Dahlen

Hannah Dahlen AM is the Professor of Midwifery, Discipline Leader of Midwifery and Associate Dean (Research and Higher Degree Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University. She has been a midwife for 30 years. Hannah has over 200 published journal articles and book chapters and has a strong national and international reputation in maternal health. She is a renowned speaker, public commentator and birth activist. In 2019 Hannah was awarded a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and In November 2012 Hannah was named in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 “people who change our city for the better” and named as one of the leading “science and knowledge thinkers” for 2012.

Renee Adair

Renee Adair is a proud Homebirth mumma and grandmother who founded the Australian Doula College in 2007. With a background in natural therapies, she first began working with women and babies in 1994 and in 1998 after the home births of her two biological children, she began studying to become a Doula and Childbirth and Early Parenting Educator. Early in her career Renee started an in home education program for new parents and was regularly attending births as a doula. In the early 2000’s Renee also started working in child protection for the Australian Red Cross young women’s health program; which was the catalyst for later founding the Groundwork Program and Doula Heart Network.

In 2009 Renee launched the first Government accredited Doula training in the world and in 2013 worked In collaboration to produce the first research on Doulas in Australia which was published in the Journal of Perinatal Education. Renee has worked to change the way we think about Doula support launching an End of Life Doula Training for the College officially in 2021, with a view for the wider community to see Doula support though a broader lens. In 2019 Renee proudly partnered with Charles Darwin University to co facilitate Accredited Doula training for Indigenous women in the remote First Nations community of Galiwin’ku. She now sits on the official Galiwin’ku steering committee to restore Birthing on Country. Renee has sat on the Consumer Advisory Board of the Australian College of Midwives, contributes to various media publications, has trained thousands of Doulas and supported hundreds of women, their partners and families through pregnancy, birth, early parenting and end of life over the course of her career.
A fierce advocate for human rights, the proud mother of three adult children, 3 grandkids and 3 fur babies, Renee spends her downtime with friends and family, walking her hounds, in her garden or on the beach.

1 CPD hour