UWS midwifery researcher named one of Sydney’s ‘leading thinkers’

Hannah Dahlen and patient 

Congratulations to Professor Hannah Dahlen, a leading midwifery researcher in the University of Western Sydney's School of Nursing and Midwifery, who has been named in the Sydney Morning Herald's list of 100 "people who change our city for the better".

A panellist on the selection panel for the special feature in the (Sydney) magazine described Associate Professor Dahlen as "probably the leading force promoting natural birth and midwife-led care in Australia."
The Sydney Morning Herald has listed Professor Dahlen as one the city's leading "science and knowledge thinker".

Professor Dahlen's research has made a significant contribution to maternity services development in Australia and internationally.

Her 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, physical activity and obesity from the perspective of women and health professionals, and vaginal birth after caesarean.
2. Health service/policy development, which include three recent publications (online 2010) regarding the submissions to the National Maternity Services Review around homebirth, birth centres and free birth, 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 and the use of doulas in the health service.
Professor Dahlen has strong national and international research partnerships, has received 12 grants since 2000, including being CI on two NHMRC grants in 2011 and has had over 60 publications in the past seven years. She has spoken at over 100 national and international conference and given keynote addresses at half of these.