Sue Kildea

Sue Kildea is an internationally renowned midwifery and health services researcher with collaborative projects across Australia, Canada, Sweden and the UK. Specialising in midwifery and maternity services, remote and First Nations health she has projects redesigning maternity services; Birthing on Country services; new methods of monitoring progress in labour; sterile water injections for back pain in labour; waterbirth; and new methods for breastfeeding support. Most projects aim to improve health services and many are to strengthen services for vulnerable women and families (First Nations women, refugee women, teenagers, rural and remote women; women impacted by natural disasters/ stress in pregnancy). She is a strong collaborative researcher with expertise in participatory action research, epidemiology, randomised controlled trials, evaluation and community development. She has worked as a technical advisor in for the World Health Organisation, UNFPA and other organisations in Mongolia, Geneva, Jordan, Viet Nam, Canada, Japan and Indonesia. In 2018, Sue won Research Australia’s Health Services Researcher Award. Together with Molly Wardaguga, a Senior Aboriginal Health Worker from Maningrida, Sue was the joint recipient of the UTS Human Rights Award in 2004. This was awarded for contribution to advancing reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.