Research students

The Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health is committed to supporting the work of postgraduate research students in the areas of midwifery and child and family health. Staff and Portfolio holders are involved in being advisors or supervisors to PhD, Professional Doctorate and Masters (Hons) students and Bachelor (Hons) students.

Supervision is undertaken mainly as a group through regular meetings of supervisors and students. In these meetings the students discuss their work and receive advice, guidance and support. The meetings are held fortnightly (Fridays from 10-12) at the UTS City Campus. We welcome the attendance of prospective students who want to come and hear about the process on undertaking postgraduate research degrees and to meet potential supervisors. Contact the office on 02 9514 4834 for details of the dates of meetings.

The Faculty website provides more information about research students at UTS.

What is expected of research degree students? (PDF, 26kB)

Current postgraduate students

Some research students of the Centre, 2010

Doctoral students

Cathy Adams (PT)
Changing culture in maternity services around vaginal birth after caesarean section
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur, Adjunct Professor Nicky Leap and Professor Jackie Crisp

Marjorie Atchan (PT)
Understanding why women choose not to breastfeed: A grounded theory study
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Associate Professor Deb Davis

Christine Catling-Paul (PT)
PhD: Experiences of women who choose homebirth in a publicly-funded model
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Hannah Dahlen

Helen Cooke (PT)
PhD: Interprofessional education improves safety and outcomes in the assessment of fetal welfare
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Professor Warwick Giles

Hilary Gatward (PT)
PhD: Women's experience of pregnancy before and after the due date
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Associate Professor Deborah Davis

Robyn Johnston (PT)
PhD: Health seeking behaviour: an exploration of differing maternal perceptions regarding the roles of Child and Family Health Services and General Practice.
Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Professor Val Wilson

Manal Kassab (FT)
PhD: Is oral glucose an effective form of pain relief for infants undergoing two month immunization injections: A randomised controlled trial.
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Professor Cathrine Fowler

Leta Wei Ling Loh (FT)
Doctor of Midwifery: Towards the promotion of normal birth: Collaborative action research in a tertiary maternity unit in Singapore
Supervisors: Associate Professor Deb Davis and Adjunct Professor Nicky Leap

Nancy Olan Buasi (FT)
Doctor of Midwifery: Implementing support in labour for women attending the Port Moresby General Hospital
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Nicky Leap

Jane Raymond (PT)
PhD: Factors that impact on the delivery and outcome of a complex intervention designed to limit weight gain during pregnancy for obese women
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Associate Professor Deborah Davis

Janice Sim (PT)
An intervention study using an education package of change clinical practice around VBAC
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Adjunct Professor Nicky Leap

Jan Wheeler (PT)
Doctor of Midwifery: Midwifery clinical practice interventions and perineal trauma in Asian women experiencing spontaneous vaginal birth
Supervisors: Associate Professor Deb Davis, Professor Caroline Homer and Associate Professor Marg Fry

Masters (Hons) students

Fiona Arundell (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): [title still being finalised]
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Professor Cathrine Fowler

Annette Bennet (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): The experiences of new Midwife graduates from the Hamlin College of Midwives following their deployment into rural areas of Ethiopia
Supervisors: Associate Professor Deb Davis and Adjunct Professor Nicky Leap

Nicola Brown (PT)
Master of Nursing (Hons): Asthma management self-efficacy in parents of school age children
Supervisors: Associate Professor Robyn Gallagher and Professor Cathrine Fowler

Vanessa Clements (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): [title still being finalised]
Supervisors: Professor Nicky Leap and Associate Professor Deb Davis

Felicity Copeland (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): What role do midwives' beliefs have on their interpretation of childbirth?
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Hannah Dahlen

Louise Everitt (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Midwives experiences of working with assumption of care of newborns after birth
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Associate Professor Jennifer Fenwick

Soheila Jadidi (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Women's perception of induction of labour
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Professor Caroline Homer

Geraldine Gilroy (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): An evaluation of the SwiMwithME programme for student midwives
Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Dr Joanne Gray

Jane Kookarkin (PT)
Master of Health Services (Hons): What are the stories being told through Child and Family Health Nursing Documentation? Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Professor Maralyn Foureur

Lyn Passant (PT)
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Implementing change in a postnatal ward
Supervisors: Professor Pat Brodie and Assoc Professor Virginia Schmied

Deborah Sims (PT)
Master of Midwifery: topic to be confirmed
Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Dr Joanne Gray

Bachelor (Hons) students

Athena Hammond (PT)
Expectations of graduates from two midwifery education courses in Australia
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Joanne Gray

Sophie Davidson (PT)
Topic to be confirmed
Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Professor Caroline Homer

Heather Pearce (PT)
Pregnancy-related low back and pelvic girdle pain: listening to Australian women
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Associate Professor Hannah Dahlen

Heike Roth (PT)
Celebrities and the childbearing body. Preliminary findings of a media content analysis of Australia’s top three women's magazines
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Associate Professor Jennifer Fenwick

Karen Kennedy (PT)
Women's experiences of midwifery care in the early postnatal period
Supervisors: Associate Professor Jennifer Fenwick and Ms Rachel Smith

Rebecca Coddington (PT)
The construction of childbirth: A discourse analysis of professional organisations submission to the maternity services review
Supervisors: Associate Professor Jennifer Fenwick and Professor Caroline Homer

Masters and Doctoral Students from the Centre who completed and graduated

2010

Suellen Allen
PhD: Understanding the safety culture in one maternity service in NSW
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Mary Chiarella

Lois Berry
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Current practices, screening and diagnosis in the South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Linette Lock and Professor Caroline Homer / Professor Nicky Leap

Ines Cooper
Bachelor of Nursing (Hons)
Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Dr Carolyn Briggs

Carole Gilmour
Doctor of Midwifery: Continuity, control and choice for midwives within the changing face of midwifery
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Assoc Prof Lin Lock

Joanne Gray
PhD: An exploration of the 'follow-through' experience of pre-registration midwifery students
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Nicky Leap

Julia Naylor (PT)
Bachelor of Nursing (Hons): What is the quality and nature of information being provided to parents via Australian popular parenting magazines?
Supervisors: Dr Carolyn Briggs and Professor Cathrine Fowler

Deborah Nemeth Doctor of Nursing: How do practitioners in two child and family health teams negotiate collaborative interprofessional practice?
Supervisors: Professor Cathrine Fowler and Dr Roger Dunston

Rachel Smith
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Experiences of midwives undertaking credentialing in NSW Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Pat Brodie

Katie Sullivan
Master of Midwifery (Hons): Why do midwives stay?
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Linette Lock and Professor Caroline Homer

Alison Teate
Master of Midwifery (Hons): The introduction of CenteringPregnancy to Australia Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Nicky Leap

Belle Watson
Bachelor of Midwifery (Hons)
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Maralyn Foureur

Catherine Whelan
Master of Midwifery (Hons): The impact of interprofessional education on medical student anxiety in labour ward Supervisors: Professor Maralyn Foureur and Professor Caroline Homer

2009

Carolyn Briggs (PT)
Doctor of Nursing: To investigate contemporary nursing practice and service delivery to inform best practice in maternal child and family health models of care
Supervisors: Adjunct Professor Virginia Schmied and Professor Lesley Barclay

2008

Hannah Dahlen
Doctor of Philosophy: The Perineal Warm Pack Trial
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Margaret Cooke

Karen Myors
Masters by Research
Supervisors: Adj Professor Virginia Schmied and Professor Edward White

2007

Athena Sheehan
Doctor of Philosophy: A grounded theory analysis of women's infant feeding decision
Supervisors: Adjunct Professor Virginia Schmied and Professor Lesley Barclay

2006

Reham Khresheh
Doctor of Philosophy: Investigating the feasibility of introducing a consolidated birth record: the first step in an information system that identifies outcomes and enables improvement.
Supervisors: Dr Lin Lock, Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Lesley Barclay

Insaf Shaban
Doctor of Midwifery: Midwifery as a public health strategy: The exploration of the potential role and education of midwives in Jordan
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Lin Lock

Noreen Murray
Masters by Research: Routine urinalysis in pregnancy - the HULA Study.
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer and Dr Margaret Cooke

Denise Kinross
Master of Nursing by Research: A decade of change: the development of family centred care in a neonatal unit
Supervisors: Dr Virginia Schmied and Dr Margaret Cooke

2005

Margaret Duff
Doctor of Philosophy: A Chronology of Birth
Supervisors: Professor Lesley Barclay and Adjunct Professor Virginia Schmied

Sue Kildea
Doctor of Philosophy: Reducing 'Isolation'. A participatory action research approach to strengthen remote area maternity services.
Supervisors: Professor Lesley Barclay and Dr Pat Brodie

Nicky Leap
Doctor of Midwifery: Rhetoric and Reality: Narrowing the Gap in Australian Midwifery
Supervisors: Professor Lesley Barclay and Professor Jill White

Jane Svensson
Doctor of Philosophy: Antenatal Education: Meeting Consumer Needs A Study in Health Services Development
Supervisors: Professor Lesley Barclay, Dr Margaret Cooke

Tauaitala Lees
Masters of Nursing by Research: Safe Motherhood in Samoa: A Needs Assessment
Supervisors: Professor Caroline Homer, Professor Lesley Barclay