Women’s and Newborn Services

Overview

Women’s and Newborn Services offer a diverse range of healthcare services to women and their babies across Queensland and beyond.

The service line is dedicated to quality multidisciplinary healthcare and is actively involved in the advancement in services in research and education and has a strong connection with multiple universities and training organisations in the provision of a tertiary service.

Research Specific

Women’s and Newborn Services continues to maintain an active interest in research activities as well as the provision of multiple education programs for undergraduate and postgraduate health services professionals. This is supported by strong connections with local universities and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RANZCOG).

Professor Callaway is the Director of Research in Women’s and Newborns Services and is a Pre-eminent Staff Specialist in Obstetric Medicine with a strong program of research in medical disorders of pregnancy. She is working to embed clinical research within the clinical work of Women’s and Newborn Services. She has had continuous peer reviewed grant funding for over ten years, has published over 130 papers and enjoys research higher degree supervision.

Staff within Women’s and Newborn Services have National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding in perinatal medicine, obstetric medicine and reproductive biology and gynaecological oncology.

The Neonatal Research Group includes individual clinicians and researchers from the Grantley Stable Neonatal Unit (GNSU) who work collaboratively with the Perinatal Research Centre. Members of the group represent a variety of research domains and expertise, with an overall aim to improve outcomes for babies and families through the cultivation of pioneering research, support for translation of research into practice, and innovation within clinical care.

The Perinatal Research Centre is a UQCCR based centre, led by Prof Paul Colditz, with a long track record of outstanding research outcomes.  Professor Colditz is a clinician scientist, with an ongoing commitment to clinical service delivery within the neonatal intensive care and special care unit.  The PRC plays a key role within the RBWH in clinical trials which have not only been instrumental in improving the care of mothers and babies in the hospital, but also nationally and internationally.

Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer Research’s mission is to research and develop the best standard of care for women experiencing gynaecological cancer.  This includes finding causes for and preventing gynaecological cancer; and finding better treatment options to cure women affected by gynaecological cancer. We have a focus on conducting surgical clinical trials. The Director of QCGC Research is Professor Andreas Obermair.

Prof Hayden Homer, within the UQCCR has recently established an Oocyte biology lab, and also contributes to the provision of clinical fertility services within RBWH.

Current Clinical research being conducted by our departments include:

• The level of allergic disease in children of women given probiotics during pregnancy.
• Comparison of Lactoferrin supplements Vs Iron for anaemia in pregnancy
• The effects of pneumococcal vaccine given to pregnant indigenous women on their baby’s respiratory infection rate in the first year
• Gestational Trophoblastic Disease
• Neurodevelopment in premature babies
• PTSD in parents of babies admitted to NICU
• Models of Care and effect on breast feeding
• Understanding the Pathogenesis of Endometriosis and the Influence on Treatment Response.

Research Teams

Women’s and Newborn Services currently conduct research in the following areas:

• Perinatal Research
• Neonatology
• Maternity
• Gynaecological cancer