Sustaining rural and remote maternity services in the South West Hospital Health Service in Queensland. Presented by Anne Bousfield

Anne is the Clinical Midwifery Consultant for the South West Hospital Health Service (SWHHS), a geographically large rural and remote health service in western Queensland. She has been a midwife for 36 years and has worked in a variety of maternity and neonatal settings in Queensland and Victoria including tertiary hospitals, a free standing birth centre, and regional, rural and remote settings. In addition to her clinical roles, Anne has spent time in the university sector as a lecturer in a Master of Midwifery Program. Born in Mitchell in the South West and growing up on a remote sheep station between Mitchell and Bollon, Anne was educated via School of the Air Charleville, before attending school in Mungallala, Mitchell and then boarding school. During this time, she observed firsthand, the difficulties that her mother and other rural and remote women experienced in accessing maternity care and ongoing postnatal support.

Strengthening maternity services for the best start in life for First Nations families. Presented by Professor Sue Kildea and Professor Yvette Roe

Co-Director MWRC. Professor Sue Kildea is internationally recognised as a midwifery leader with expertise in maternity service redesign who has strong links with Indigenous researchers and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations across the country. Sue has worked in many positions supporting remote communities including as a nurse midwife and health centre manager in Maningrida, Arnhem Land in the mid-nineties; as a flight nurse for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, as an outreach Women's Health Nurse in the Northern Territory and as a remote nurse midwife in Cape York, Queensland. Together with Associate Professor Yvette Roe, Sue is the Co-Director of The Molly Wardaguga Research Centre. Sue worked closely with Molly for many years to improve the pregnancy, birthing and parenting experiences of Aboriginal women, particularly those living in remote areas. Sue and Molly worked on the Remote Area Birthing Project for the Women's health Policy Unit NT, and again when Sue was doing her doctoral studies in Maningrida in the early 2000's, which focused on strengthening Aboriginal Women's health and the maternity journey. Sue has a strong focus on translational research, health service research, redesigning health services for vulnerable families and promoting normal birth and breastfeeding.

Co-Director MWRC. Associate Professor Yvette Roe is a Njikena Jawuru woman from the West Kimberly region, Western Australia. Yvette grew up in Darwin where she has strong family and friend connections. Yvette has more than 25 years' experience working in Aboriginal health. She was awarded her PhD, by the University of South Australia in November 2015. As an Aboriginal scholar, Yvette's research and priority has been to identify opportunities to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by delivering and evaluating health services that are client, family and community focused. Yvette's research is co-designed with families, communities and service providers. Yvette's current research has a specific focus on ensuring maternal and infant services are mother-child focused and are informed by an Indigenous epistemology and ontology. This involves describing and assessing the impact of community engagement, continuity of care, social complexity and patient engagement, and its relationship to health outcomes. Yvette brings an assurance of cultural competence and utilisation of Indigenous research methods to her work. She is fully trained and competent in both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills.