Heather Hancock

Heather has a diverse background in midwifery practice, education and research, perinatal wellbeing, primary health, practice change and practice development, as an academic and a practitioner in rural, remote and urban settings in Australia and in developing countries. Heather has worked with remote Aboriginal communities developing perinatal quality indicators for Aboriginal Health Services and reviewing Aboriginal women’s perinatal needs, experiences and maternity services.

She established a Government Home Birth Service, developed a Midwifery Group Practice in a remote maternity setting in Australia and most recently led the creation of a new discipline of midwifery and Bachelor of Midwifery in a regional Australian university.

Heather has been working with the UK Oxford Pain Group, conducting a systematic review of sterile water for injection for pain relief in labour and is currently conducting research on the stages of labour.