Athena Hammond

Athena is a registered midwife whose abiding interest in midwifery research has become the focus of her working life, culminating in her current doctoral candidature at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Athena's doctoral research is focused on understanding the impacts of hospital birth room design on the practice and experiences of midwives caring for childbearing women. This research is part of the Birth Unit Design project, an ARC funded cross-disciplinary project encompassing midwifery, design & architecture at UTS.

Research generated through Athena's doctoral project has been published in various academic journals and she has presented her work at both national and international conferences. She has recently been invited to co-author a book on Birth Unit Design and looks forward to submitting her thesis in early 2015.