
Imagine a world of connected care for the midwife, the family and the baby – that’s the dream coming to reality for thousands of Australian families experiencing the possibilities of digital health.
Innovation is sweeping the midwifery field with apps for mobile devices enabling around the clock physical and mental health care for expectant mums. Families can search for answers to their pregnancy and early parenting questions with qualified advice 24/7. A world of digital maternal healthcare is coming to equip anyone in the community with the support they need.
Join our virtual seminar to learn about some of the many innovative developments across Australia:
- Maternity apps and clinician portals
- Online antenatal classes
- Breastfeeding how-to apps
- Support between antenatal and postnatal visits
- Psychological wellbeing & tracking
- Research based strategies & techniques for fertility treatments
- Monitoring for high-risk pregnancies
- Latest learning technology & digital tools
- Digital, accessible communities open to all new mothers
- Holistic education and online resources to empower parents
- Digital courses and resources for C-section birth recovery
When
Tuesday 23 February 2021
12:30pm – 6:00pm (AEDT)
Where
Virtual event
Price
Early bird (until 29 Jan) | Price |
---|---|
AIDH / ACM / HiNZ Member | $60 |
Non-member | $80 |
Consumer* | $25 |
Standard (from 30 Jan) | Price |
AIDH / ACM / HiNZ Member | $80 |
Non-member | $100 |
Consumer* | $25 |
* Consumer rate is only available for families trying to conceive, expectant mums and new parents who are not registered with AHPRA
CPD
Earn 5 hours of CPD credit
Speakers

Karina Ayers
Maternal and Child Health Advisor
Free yourself from Dr. Google questions and help me build our community’s support for breastfeeding with an internationally award-winning app
Karina has over 20 years of clinical experience in midwifery, child health, breastfeeding and lactation. She is driven to solve daily frustrations and preventable challenges families face caring for babies and young children. Using technology enabled care, research and best practice in a creative framework her goal is to involve families directly in their care.

Donna Barnekow
Founder
The Conceiving Mind, & registered nurse & midwife, fertility counsellor and hypnotherapist
The Conceiving Mind: An online education and resource program guiding couples through fertility treatment and early pregnancy
This presentation will discuss the intense emotions experienced by couples with infertility undergoing treatment and some of the impacts. It will also discuss research in this area undertaken by Dr Alice Domar PhD. Lastly, ‘The Conceiving Mind’ program will be outlined. This is a proactive approach to fertility treatment using research-based strategies and techniques to help couples gain a sense of control over of their mental and emotional health from preconception and into early pregnancy.

Rebeccah Bartlett
Founder
Shifra App
Making digital health accessible to women before, during and after pregnancy
Despite the quality and advances of Australia’s healthcare system, we cannot afford to wait to develop our digital maternity care systems any longer. What COVID-19 shows us is the importance of having a well-developed, integrated and interoperable maternal digital healthcare system. We should already have this now. The maternal health sector can and should lead digital health innovation. We save babies born far too early and mothers who are far too sick every day. This is our time to step up and to lead. Indeed, it’s our responsibility to do so.

Nicole Carlon
Director of Operations
Women and Children Northern Health
Eve: A comprehensive maternity smartphone application and clinician portal
Eve is a comprehensive maternity smartphone application and clinician portal which aims to address the following issues:
- The wave of untrustworthy information that women get when searching for answers to their pregnancy/early parenting concerns
- Engagement of women with their healthcare provider to ensure care is women-centred
- Lack of support between antenatal/postnatal visits, particularly with increasing telehealth services
- Monitoring of high risk pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and obesity

Cath Curtin
Author, app developer and podcaster
The use and value of digital media for education and information about pregnancy and early motherhood
Digital learning is an instructional practice that ultimately helps pregnant women and new parents. It makes use of a broad range of technology-enhanced educational strategies including blended learning, flipped learning, personalized learning and other strategies that rely on digital tools to a small or large degree.

Cindy Davenport
Co-Director
Ternity Group, & midwife, lactation consultant, child and family health nurse
‘Nourish Baby’ online antenatal classes and early parenting courses
Since the emergence of COVID-19, there have been huge changes in the way health services deliver care and guidance to new parents particularly in a digital format. The gaps or unintended consequences of COVID-19 in the maternity sector, and learnings to inform practice, have highlighted the need to integrate accredited evidence-based antenatal classes.
Recent results from our Nourish Baby survey have further shown that overwhelmingly 71% of expectant and new parents are seeking a combination of face-to-face and online classes, citing their top reasons as flexibility to listen and watch in their own time, at their own pace, with their partners and in an environment that is more akin to their individual learning style.

Sara Davis
Clinical Midwife
Community Midwifery Program
The midwifery tool for change
The ‘MT4C’ has been developed to help address the evidence-practice gap within contemporary maternity care. It is the first midwifery-specific implementation tool and is presented in the form of a progressive web application which can be accessed via any handheld or desktop device, or downloaded for use offline. It is being developed through consultation with change leader midwives in Australia and UK and contains key factors previously identified as being influential in pre-existing implementation frameworks refined to reflect midwifery practice.

Dr Deborah Fox
Senior Lecturer
Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health, University of Technology Sydney
Non-invasive fetal ECG monitoring: Innovations in the care of women with complex pregnancies

Mariann Hadland
Registered Midwife
Midwifery Group Practice, Townsville University Hospital
The impact of iEMR on perinatal care in Australia: A multi-site study
In maternity care, paper hand-held records (PHR) have been successfully used for many years with the benefits of facilitating women-centred care, women’s participation in their care and improving communication between clinicians. Integration of care is particularly important for pregnant women who may see multiple clinicians both within the hospital and the community so the introduction of the iEMR held much promise. However, it is important that in the implementation of an EMR, the established benefits of a PHR are transferred and not lost. This study investigated the impact of iEMR in maternity of two health services in QLD on staff and women through survey, audit, observation and interview methods.

Jan Ireland
Director
MAMA: Midwives and Mothers Australia
Bringing together a digital community of passionate midwives, mothers and families
From hugs, tears, laughter, feeding babies together, music, yoga and dancing to COVID-safe practice. Our freshly developed digital community, MAMA, helps to keep the connection between expectant and new mums & their team. This platform facilitates 7 groups (from ‘Trying to conceive’ to ‘Motherhood’), an extensive library with videos and resources and weekly live Q&As with midwives and other practitioners. It is beneficial not only for Victorians but for all Australians.

A/Prof Lauren Kearney
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Midwifery & Paramedicine
University of the Sunshine Coast
The impact of iEMR on perinatal care in Australia: A multi-site study
In maternity care, paper hand-held records (PHR) have been successfully used for many years with the benefits of facilitating women-centred care, women’s participation in their care and improving communication between clinicians. Integration of care is particularly important for pregnant women who may see multiple clinicians both within the hospital and the community so the introduction of the iEMR held much promise. However, it is important that in the implementation of an EMR, the established benefits of a PHR are transferred and not lost. This study investigated the impact of iEMR in maternity of two health services in QLD on staff and women through survey, audit, observation and interview methods.

Jayne Kotz
Project Lead, Baby Coming You Ready? (BCYR)
& Senior Research Fellow; Nurse Practitioner/Midwife
Baby Coming You Ready?
Baby Coming You Ready? A bold innovation designed to support the social and emotional wellbeing of vulnerable parents-to-be
‘Baby Coming You Ready?’ (BCYR), a bold co-designed approach to assessing and supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of vulnerable mothers (and fathers)-to-be, in antenatal and postnatal settings, replaces current practices for screening depression, AOD and FVD. Its touch-screen technology uses images and voice-overs to guide users through a strength-focused, conversational, open self-reflection. As images are selected, they create a personalised strengths-based story, identify and prioritise worries for SMART goal setting, and generate an automated Clinical Event Summary which links in real time to electronic patient record systems and My Health Record. BCYR is approved by the Australian Digital Health Agency.

A/Prof Lois McKellar
Associate Professor of Midwifery
YourTime: Promoting maternal wellbeing during pregnancy and after birth
This presentation will provide an overview of the development of a novel app “YourTime,” which seeks to promote the psychological wellbeing of women during pregnancy and after birth. YourTime is built around an evidence-based scale which enables women to track their mood and recognize a deterioration in their mental wellbeing. It also aims to provide supportive resources on maintaining positive wellbeing.

Rebecca McQueen
Co-Founder
Online skills-based childbirth education for parents… and life!
Birth Sense Australia (BSA) is committed to empowering parents with skills, tools and knowledge for the perinatal period from an evidence-based perspective. The BSA online program comprises of 9 individual modules providing parents with skills to prepare for the birth, in a self-paced manner. All information shared is synergistic with information given in hospital-based classes and are applicable to all types of labour and births, and all models of care.
The “interviews with experts and friends” series is offered as a free resource for expectant and new parents. It is a library of holistic educational webinars with industry experts ranging from the mental health professionals, midwives, women’s health physios, obstetricians and dieticians.

Leonie Rastas
Founder & CEO
Empowering women through their C-section journey with online education, support and resources
The session will introduce ‘CaesarCare’, a series of digital courses and resources for women preparing for, and recovering from, C-section births. It will also share the innovative wound splint designed in 2018 to encourage women to protect and support their wounds from dehiscence during sudden movements such as coughing, sneezing and laughing. Lastly, we will preview the ‘C-section Recovery Manual – Your Body, Your Recovery’ due for release in both paper and digital copy in April 2021. The manual is designed to be used as a companion for women, their partners and carers during the postpartum period.

Tarryn Sharp
Project Lead
Country Health Innovations
‘My Baby WA’ mobile phone application
This session will share the journey and outcomes of developing a maternity mobile phone application tailored to the Western Australian population. The app ‘My Baby WA’ was launched in late 2020 and developed by the WA Country Health Service in partnership with the Health Consumers Council WA. The app aims to provide evidence-based maternity information in one accessible place; provide an interactive timeline assisting women to plan their pregnancy care; empower women to be involved in their care; use geospatial technology to inform women of the services, including models of care, available in their location and functions to engage vulnerable groups and assist them to stay engaged in antenatal care through reminders and action-based messages.

Edwina Sharrock OAM
Founder
Online birth education: Could this be the new normal?
This session will focus on current trends of online education and who is consuming it, how to consider different types of adult education and learners, and considerations for rural and regional Australia. It will also address engagement and interaction between midwives and families, and assess whether this can be achieved via Zoom.

Dr Jeni Stevens
Clinical Midwifery Consultant in Infant Feeding
App-t Innovation: Developing an antenatal app
NSW Health supported the development of a “breastfeeding how-to” app. The app provides education to women having babies, their partners and support people. This presentation will cover why an app, where to start, funding opportunities, advertising, consumer involvement and engagement and app analysis.

Dr Jen Bichel-Findlay FAIDH CHIA
Honorary Associate
University of Technology Sydney, & Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Community of Practice

Show your support,
showcase your brand!
Showcase how your company is supporting the digitisation of the maternity sector. Contact Kavan to discuss how you can be involved.
Watch all presentations on demand

All registered delegates get one month free access to Digital Health TV – a collection of hundreds of videos and presentations that can be accessed on demand – anywhere, anytime, from any device.
This also includes recordings of all sessions of this event.
CPD points
Digital health for midwives: Apps and innovations transforming maternal health and wellness has been accredited by the following organisations. To record your CPD please contact the your association.
Event partners
Bio
HealthKite is an Australian based digital health team driven to improve patient outcomes, experience and engagement.
Our key focus areas include:
• Telemonitoring / Telehealth
• Live Digital Engagement
• Patient Reported Outcomes and Experience
• Falls prevention and detection
• Home-based healthcare
• Health-based app development
Our flagship product ‘Eve’ is a digital maternity platform designed to provide expectant mothers and their partners with access to numerous tools and an extensive library of information to enrich their pregnancy, birthing and parenting experience. Mothers and their partners can seamlessly keep track of appointments, participate in virtual pregnancy classes and send direct messages to their Midwives, all from the app. Tools such as the contraction timer, kick counter, emotional health tracker and physical health tracker all feed data back to the Midwives in the hospital who can access this information in real time via the Eve portal and monitor the well-being of the mother.
Eve brochure