Elizabeth Newnham

Dr. Elizabeth Newnham is a is a mother of four, a grandmother of two, and senior lecturer and director of midwifery programs at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her 20-year career includes clinical midwifery practice, teaching and research. Teaching and research interests include cultural and political analysis of birthing practice, and the role of midwives in promoting physiological and humanised birth. Key areas of study are birth culture and environment, critical evaluation of birth technologies, pain in labour, maternity policy/politics and care ethics. She has published widely in these areas, and been an invited speaker at conferences and events in Europe, the UK and Australia. Her doctoral research was published as the book Towards the humanisation of birth: A study of epidural analgesia and hospital birth culture by Palgrave MacMillan, and also disseminated in practice journals in the UK and Germany. Dr. Newnham is an activist in the midwifery profession, involved with the Midwives Association of Ireland and holding leadership roles in the Australian College of Midwives.