Caroline Homer, RM, MN, MMedSc (ClinEpi), PhD

Board & Management

Caroline Homer, RM, MN, MMedSc (ClinEpi), PhD

(AUS) Australia:  Midwife

Nominee Highlights:

Professor Caroline Homer is a leading midwifery researcher in Australia and has an international reputation as a scholar and leader in maternal and newborn health care. She is the Co-Program Director: Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, at the Burnet Institute and Visiting Professor of Midwifery, at the University of Technology Sydney. response. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Caroline has set up research projects and collaborated with UNFPA to develop a technical brief for midwives, nurses and doctors on undertaking antenatal and postnatal care during the COVID-19 response. She is planning research for 2021 that will look at the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 to advise the government, NGOs and civil society on the best responses to improve services and to improve pandemic preparedness planning for the future.

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“My work is focussed on ensuring that every mother and baby received the best care before during and after childbirth and that midwives are there to provide high-quality care all over the world” – Caroline Homer

Professor Caroline Homer’s research has influenced the development of midwifery continuity of care in Australia and globally. Professor Homer has been involved in the development of midwifery in Australia and in a number of other countries in the Asia Pacific region, including Papua New Guinea (PNG), and across the Pacific. In PNG she led the development of quality midwifery education where her team supported 5 midwifery schools and doubled the number of midwives in 4 years. Professor Homer has more than 240 publications in peer-reviewed journals and this work has led to many changes in practice and education. She was the only Australian in The Lancet’s Series on Midwifery (2014) and the Lancet Series on Caesarean Section (2018). She was a lead writer in the State of the World’s Midwifery 2014, and Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health Workforce Assessments in Arab countries, in Sub-Saharan Africa and recently in the small islands of the Pacific. All this work has highlighted the importance of midwives and the contribution of midwives in improving maternal and newborn health.