International Maternal and Perinatal
Health Research Division

Major research themes for ARCH for 2008-2012 are benefiting women and babies by:

• Care before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth

• Promoting and supporting evidence based health care

• International maternal and perinatal health

The International Maternal and Perinatal Health Division's key research aims to benefit women and babies are:-

• To collaborate in multicentre randomised trials co-ordinated by other researchers of relevance to women and babies in Australia.
• To provide support to the SEA-ORCHID project and similar initiatives.
• To provide support for new authors of Cochrane reviews within South East Asia as part of the SEA-ORCHID project.
• To encourage and supporting new maternal and perinatal research projects within South East Asia.
• To provide editorial & monitoring programs for Cochrane review authors within the Cochrane Pregnancy & Childbirth Collaborative Review Group

SEA-ORCHID (South East Asia Optimising Reproductive and Child Health In Developing Countries)

SEA-ORCHID 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 in collaboration with 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.

References

Henderson-Smart DJ, Lumbiganon P, Festin MR, Ho JJ, Mohammad H, McDonald SJ, Green S, Crowther CA; SEA-ORCHID Study Group. Optimising reproductive and child health outcomes by building evidence-based research and practice in South East Asia (SEA-ORCHID): study protocol. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2007 Sep 24;7:43. PMID: 17892586

SEA-ORCHID Study Group, Laopaiboon M, Lumbiganon P, McDonald SJ, Henderson-Smart DJ, Green S, Crowther CA. Use of evidence-based practices in pregnancy and childbirth: South East Asia Optimising Reproductive and Child Health in Developing Countries project. PLoS ONE. 2008 Jul 9;3(7):e2646. PMID: 18612381

Key Contacts

Professor Caroline Crowther
Dr Jodie Dodd
Ms Philippa Middleton
Professor Jeffrey Robinson

Contact details