Maternal and Perinatal Health, Evidence and Research Unit
for Infants and Women

Research Leaders

Professor Caroline Crowther
Dr Jodie Dodd
Associate Professor Ross Haslam
Dr Andrew McPhee
Ms Philippa Middleton
Professor Jeffrey Robinson

Contact

Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
The University of Adelaide
Women's and Children's Hospital
King William Road
North Adelaide South Australia 5006
Phone: 61 8 8161 7619
Fax: 61 8 8161 7652
Email: caroline.crowther@adelaide.edu.au

Research Unit Staff

Senior Trial Co-ordinators

Pat Ashwood
Andrea Deussen
Amy Earl

Data Management

Vincent Ball
Carol Holst
Kaye Robinson

Statistical Support

Kristyn Willson
Hannah Dent

Educators

Ruth Martis
Rebecca Tooher

Research Support Staff

Chaturica Athukorala
Lisa Evele
Melissa Ewens
Natalie Thomas
Jacki Smith
Freya McDougall
Hong Ju

Psychologist
Kim Pfitzner
Rachel Earl

The Maternal and Perinatal Health, Evidence and Research Unit has staff working in the Maternal Perinatal Clinical Trials Unit (MPCTU) that co-ordinates single and multi-centre randomised clinical trials, the Centre for the Australian Reviewers Group for the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Collaborative Review Group (ARG-PC CRG), The South Australian node for SEA-ORCHID (Optimising Reproductive and Child Health In Developing Countries – South East Asia) and the national co-ordinating centre for The WOMBAT Collaboration (Women and Babies Wellbeing Action through Trials).

The Evidence-Based Health Care Research Unit for Women and Infants Research Unit has 10 key objectives

• identify clinical research of relevance to women's and infant's health, their carers and health policy makers
• conduct high quality systematic reviews in women's and infant's health
• promote, support, design, conduct and analyse clinical research studies, including randomised controlled trials, in women's and infant's health
• maintain a research team in all disciplines involved in women's and infant's health
• maintain a highly skilled research group with expertise in systematic reviews, trial protocol development, clinical practice guideline preparation, consumer involvement, translational research, data management, computer programming, biostatistics, and trial coordination.
• continue to establish and strengthen existing collaborative research links with health care professionals within Australia and internationally to complete priority clinical research in women's and infant's health
• develop and maintain links with Cochrane Collaborative Review Groups and Fields within the Cochrane Collaboration of relevance to maternal and perinatal health.
• secure peer-reviewed funding for clinical research of relevance to women's and infant's health
• continue to provide supervision and research training for midwives, neonatal nurses, medical students, residents, registrars, graduate and postgraduate students, and postdoctoral fellows
• assist in bringing research evidence into clinical practice by promoting effective research translation.

Research is carried out within clearly identified priority areas. Currently these include improving the health outcomes of infants born preterm, care for women with gestational diabetes, prevention of pre-eclampsia, prevention of preterm birth, treatment for primary dysmenorrhoea, support for women in pregnancy who are overweight, management of the induction of labour, care for women after a previous caesarean section, and care of women with a multiple pregnancy.

Current multicentre randomised trials include:

Maternal & Perinatal Clinical Trials Unit (MPCTU)

Specific trials in progress co-ordinated by the MPCTU are:

ACTS:	Australasian Collaborative Trial of Supplements with vitamin C and vitamin E for the prevention of pre-eclampsia – a randomised controlled trial
ACHOIS:	Australian Carbohydrate Intolerance Study in Pregnancy
ACTORDS:	Australasian Collaborative Trial of Repeat doses of prenatal Steroids to women at risk of preterm birth to reduce neonatal morbidity
BAC: Recruiting	Birth After Caesarean: Planned vaginal birth or planned elective repeat caesarean for women at term with a single previous caesarean section.
Borderline Gestational Diabetes Open for other centres to join the study	Dietary and lifestyle advice for women with borderline gestational diabetes.
DAT:	The influence of acupuncture stimulation of reducing period pain in young women: a randomised controlled trial
Dental Study	Is periodontal disease a risk factor for preterm birth?
MgSO4 Recruiting	What is the optimal timing of administration for Magnesium Sulphate prior to preterm birth?
PROGRESS: Recruiting Open for other centres to join the study	PROGesterone after previous preterm birth for prevention of neonatal RESpiratory distress Syndrome
Obesity Open for other centres to join the study	Limiting weight gain in overweight and obese women during pregnancy to improve health outcomes: a randomised trial.
TWINS Recruiting Open for other centres to join the study	Timing of Birth at Term- A randomised controlled trial.

Trials in progress for which the MPCTU is a collaborating centre

PPROMPT Recruiting Open for other centres to join the study

PRETERM PRELABOUR RUPTURE OF MEMBRANES close to TERM

TWINS BIRTH STUDY Recruiting

This trial is co-ordinated by the University of Toronto Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health Research Unit at The Centre for Research in Women's Health.

Webpage: http://www.health.adelaide.edu.au/og/research/mpctu.html

The MPCTU has wide collaborative links; within the University of Adelaide with over 44 key maternity institutions in all States and Territories within Australia, major maternity hospitals in New Zealand and overseas.

Australasian Reviewers Group for the Collaborative Review Group (ARG-PC-CRG)

The Australian Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Central Office is funded by the Department of Health to support Australian authors, prepare and maintain Cochrane Systematic Reviews relating to women’s and infant's health. Ms Philippa Middleton is the National Co-ordinator for the group supported by the research leaders. There are 135 Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth review authors within Australia who are supported by staff in the research office and their work accounts for 66 Cochrane Systematic Reviews, over 26% of all pregnancy and childbirth reviews in The Cochrane Library. The implications for clinical practice provide guidance for effective clinical care. The implications for research prioritise our research agenda, locally and at the national level.

Webpage http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/mrwhome/106568753/HOME?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

SEA-ORCHID

SEA-ORCHID (South East Asia Optimising Reproductive and Child Health In Developing Countries) is a joint research initiative with The University of Sydney (Professor David Henderson-Smart), The University of Melbourne (Associate Professor Sally Green) and The University of Adelaide (Professor Caroline Crowther) to build evidence-based capacity for reproductive and child health in South East Asia with collaboration of colleagues in Thailand (Professor Pisake Lumbiganon, Khon Kaen University), The Philippines (Professor Mario Festin, University of the Philippines, Manila), Indonesia (Professor Mohammad Hakimi, Gadjah Mada University, Jokjakarta) and Malaysia (Professor Jackie Ho, Perak College of Medicine, Ipoh). This five-year interrupted time series project aims to find out if the health of mothers and babies in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia can be improved by increasing the capacity for research synthesis, improving the implementation of effective interventions and identifying gaps in knowledge needing further research. Mrs Ruth Martis, one of the SEA-ORCHID clinical Educators is locate in South Australia.
Webpage: www.seaorchid.org

THE WOMBAT Collaboration

The WOMBAT (Women and Babies Wellbeing: Action through Trials) Collaboration promotes and supports high quality randomised clinical trials in the perinatal area in order to improve the health and wellbeing of women and their children. The Australian perinatal researchers and practitioners who act as the WOMBAT Collaboration Advisory Board have been awarded an NHMRC enabling grant to enhance the national health and medical research effort.

The WOMBAT Collaboration aims are to:

• Provide high level support to researchers undertaking multicentre trials in the perinatal area.
  This support spans assistance with formulating trial questions, to trial design, methods and conduct, through to dissemination of the results of the trial.
• Identify research areas and encouraging appropriate clinical and methodological trials.
  Cochrane reviews and other sources will be systematically used to identify research gaps in perinatal evidence and WOMBAT will assist researchers to develop trial protocols to address these gaps.
• Provide education and training in trial design and conduct.
  WOMBAT offers workshops and other educational resources on the various aspects of trial design

Wombat Collaboration Advisory Committee

The terms of reference for this committee are

• Oversee the operation of the WOMBAT Collaboration, in order for the objectives of the Collaboration to be fulfilled.
• Monitor the progress of the WOMBAT Collaboration towards its stated targets.
• Promote cooperative planning and conduct of high quality multicentre randomised trials at international, national and regional levels.
• Ensure that there is comprehensive and equitable access to the services and facilities of the WOMBAT Collaboration by people with an interest in conducting perinatal clinical trials within Australia.
• Provide a process for individuals or groups who wish to appeal about obtaining access to WOMBAT Collaboration services and facilities.
• Oversee the direction of the WOMBAT Collaboration’s educational program and ensure that the educational needs of Australian perinatal researchers regarding clinical trials are being addressed.
• Ensuring research gaps for perinatal trials are identified and accessible.
• Identify opportunities for sustaining the services and facilities provided by the WOMBAT Collaboration beyond the initial grant period.
• Ensure that the WOMBAT Collaboration operates without conflicts of interest.
• Promote involvement of consumers in the WOMBAT Collaboration.
• Promote the conduct of methodological research relating to perinatal clinical trials.
  

Advisory Committee Board Members

Webpage: www.wombatcollaboration.net

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