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Research into midwifery education, practice and workforce issues, and into childbearing and early parenting issues, is conducted at ACU by the Midwifery Engaged Research, Innovation and Translation (MERIT) Group.
The MERIT Group's members include academics in midwifery and other health care disciplines, research degree students, and an academic librarian.
If you would like to partner with us as a co-researcher (whether you are another academic, a midwife or maternity caregiver, a maternity services consumer, or a potential research student) please contact us - we would love to hear from you.
Lois McKellar is the Professor of Midwifery at the Australian Catholic University, previously working in Edinburgh as the Professor of Women’s Health. Lois is the Head of Discipline for Midwifery, a member of the ACU Ethics Committee and an Associate Editor of Women and Birth Journal. She has been a midwife for many years and is passionate about the well-being and mental health of women, children and their families. In 2019, Lois was awarded the South Australian Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Award for excellence in Midwifery practice. She has a strong interested in research which is translational and informs practice and education. Her current research focusses on developing evidence-based strategies to improve the well-being of women and the development of healthy and resilient families through co-design approaches. Lois is also engaged in midwifery education research. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Governor’s Leadership Foundation. Lois has mentored ECRs, completed supervision for HDRs including PhD students, Masters, and Honours students.
Areas of interest
Current PhD students
Stoodley: Using co-design to explore how midwives can support the emerging mother-infant relationship during the early postnatal period: A mixed-method study
Golding: Informing Perinatal Mental Health Care for African Refugee and Migrant Women Through Co-Design: A Mixed Methods Study
Gessesse: Professional confidence and associated factors among final year midwifery students: a mixed method study
McPhillips: Factors impacting success of adult nurses engaging in advanced clinical practice education programmes within Scotland, and their experience of the process: a pragmatic mixed methods study.
Explore more of Lois's Research
Email Lois | View Lois’s ACU profile
Associate Professor Tanya Capper is an academic and midwife with more than 27 years of international clinical midwifery experience. Tanya commenced her midwifery career in London, UK, and has held a range of clinical leadership positions within tertiary maternity services and a freestanding birth centre. She has also been the ‘named midwife’ for a number of HIV-positive women.
Tanya migrated to Australia in 2006 and has worked in academia since 2015, joining ACU in Qld in 2023. She is an academic editor of the peer-reviewed open journal PLOS ONE and has published widely in the areas of midwifery and women’s health.
Tanya has mentored many junior academics and supervised several doctoral and master’s students. She has been successful in attracting competitive grant funding and is currently supervising three doctoral and one master’s student. Her methodological expertise broadly includes qualitative and mixed methods designs.
Tanya’s current research activities focus on the following areas:
Rachelle Chee: “Social Media Influencers and Women’s Expectations During the Childbearing Continuum: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.”
Natalie Browning: “Midwives and the [ab]normal pregnancy with life-limiting fetal conditions: A critical discourse analysis.”
Xanthe Whittaker: “Factors and interventions that positively influence breastfeeding rates at six months postpartum.”
Rachel Middleton: “Factors that influence paramedic attrition and transition to other healthcare professions.”
Explore more of Tanya’s research
Email Tanya | View Tanya’s ACU profile | Connect with Tanya on X (Twitter)
Kate joined the ACU midwifery team mid-pandemic in July 2020. She has experience working in a wide range of midwifery models of care and has previously worked as an educator within a health service and the university sector. Kate is particularly interested in the views and attitudes of midwives toward their work, the wellbeing of midwives, student transition into midwifery practice, and the sustainability of midwifery led models of care. She has experience in cross sectional study design and incorporates both quantitative and qualitative methodologies into her research.
Dr. Bridget Ferguson is a senior lecturer in midwifery at the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Paramedicine at Australian Catholic University (ACU). She is a Registered Nurse and Midwife, a member of the Australian College of Midwives (ACM), and currently sits on the ACM Queensland Executive Committee.
Bridget has extensive experience in Midwifery education in Australia and internationally as a clinical educator and university lecturer. Since 2008, Bridget has been involved in teaching in higher education institutions and has held course leadership roles as a unit coordinator and Head of Course. She has contributed to curriculum design and development for accreditation and holds a Higher Education Academy of Learning & Teaching Fellowship.
She has been actively involved in several domestic and international engagement activities that have contributed to the midwifery profession.
These include:
UNFPA Midwife Specialist: contributing to maternal and reproductive health initiatives in Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Serving on the Infection Prevention and Control Panel for the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce: Bridget served as the women's health advisor on the Infection Prevention and Control Committee.
Australian College of Midwives - Midwife Buddy Project: Bridget mentored PNG tertiary educators in Papua New Guinea Midwife as an Australian Midwife Buddy.
Bridget is enduringly interested in strengthening the midwifery profession and ensuring the safety of mothers and babies, particularly those in vulnerable populations. Her passion for midwifery, safe birth, and maternal and newborn health was enriched by her PhD, which investigated the use of Maternity Early Warning Tools and enacting midwifery practice during the care of pregnant and labouring women. She also has completed a Masters in Public Health and a Graduate Certificate in Prescribing.
Areas of interest
Email Bridget | View Bridget’s ACU profile
Lynnelle currently lectures in midwifery at ACU, School of Nursing, Midwifery & Paramedicine (Melbourne campus) and is undertaking a PhD on the topic ‘How do professional connections and relationships impact midwives' wellbeing and career sustainability? A Grounded Theory study’. Lynnelle’s research focus is on midwifery workforce, midwifery wellbeing & sustainable midwifery careers. In 2023, Lynnelle was actively involved in the campaign effort to lobby for funded clinical placements for student midwives and has recently embarked on a research project alongside her ACU colleagues to explore the nature of financial hardship, as experienced by Australian midwifery students. Lynnelle has also worked on midwifery research projects such as the DAME trial, RUBY peer breastfeeding study, and Women’s Journey, promoting provision and access of culturally safe midwifery continuity of care for First Nations women and babies.
Lynnelle has worked clinically as a midwife across multiple models of care and settings. Most recently, Lynnelle was employed as a Clinical Midwife Specialist working in an MGP and publicly funded home birth program at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. It was in this setting that Lynnelle discovered the true value and possibilities of relationship-based midwifery led care. In addition to teaching and research, Lynnelle currently facilitates the Va Journal Club, a regular gathering place (in person and online) for midwives to discuss emerging research, identify strategies to improve systems and practice, build connection and community.
Areas of interest
Heather is a Midwifery Lecturer with the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Paramedicine (Melbourne campus) at ACU and a PhD candidate with the Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Her research is focused on conducting health economics analyses alongside the Strengthening Care for Children trials, where the trials feature a GP paediatrician co-consultation model of care for urban and rural children.
Prior to becoming a lecturer, Heather worked clinically as a Registered Nurse, and Registered Midwife since 2012. Her most recent hospital appointment was as a Clinical Midwife Consultant and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant at Epworth Geelong, until early 2023. She has also worked as a Research Assistant/ Research Midwife at the Child Health Research Unit, Barwon Health, assisting on the Barwon Infant Study (BIS), and the Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) study. Recently Heather spent some time working in Local Government, planning, delivering and evaluating health promotion programmes within the VicHealth – Local Government Partnership Program. Heather holds a Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwifery from Deakin University, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Melbourne.
Heather is currently undertaking her PhD Project titled: Strengthening Care for Children: Economic evaluation and distributional analysis alongside clinical trials.
Areas of interest
Email Heather | View Heather ’s ACU profile
Meena is a senior librarian for the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Paramedicine on the Melbourne Campus and has a degree in business, information, and knowledge management and a postgraduate degree in business information technology. Meena is currently studying for a Master of Counselling at Monash University. She has been an academic librarian for 12 years having also worked at Deakin and RMIT university libraries. Her research interests are in evidence-based practice; the role of health librarians in academic research engagement through digital health information literacy ie the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information and apply the knowledge to address solving health problems in an academic education setting. As a strong believer in life-long learning, she is an active member of Health Libraries Australia (HLA) of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) as secretary of the Executive Committee.
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Recent conference presentations by the group members:
Recent publications by the group members
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