Perinatal Group
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Members of the Perinatal Group |
Group head
Heads of research teams
- Clinical and Population Perinatal Health Research
- A/Prof Christine Roberts - Perinatal Basic Science Laboratory
- Dr Anthony Ashton
Overview of research program
The Perinatal Women's Health research team is dedicated to designing, performing and implementing research to improve the health of mothers and their babies.
Whilst every expectant parent looks forward to celebrating the birth of a healthy baby, unfortunately, for many this is not the case as the following statistics reveal:
- every year in Australia over 1,700 babies are stillborn
- the number of child related deaths due to still birth is double the number of deaths reported for all children between the ages of 1-14 years
- over 4,000 babies are born very early
- over 7,600 babies are born very small
- One in ten women may experience high blood pressure in pregnancy, which is potentially life-threatening.
The problems of being born early can be lifelong and consequences of being may include chronic lung disease, brain injury, cerebral palsy and behavioural difficulties.
Our multi-disciplinary research group which comprises of scientists, epidemiologists, clinicians and consumers utilises its expertise in biomedical science, clinical research and population health research to investigate pregnancy and its short and long term complications as well as newborn health and the provision of maternity health services.
The commitment to address the national health priority of "a healthy start to life for all Australians" is the driving force motivating our talented research team.
