Perinatal Ethics Committee

Dr J Thomas trained in medicine and Obstetrics in Christian Medical College Vellore. He worked in several charitable mission hospitals in India to make healthcare affordable, accessible and available. He moved to Adelaide in 2003 and trained in Maternal Fetal Medicine. He has been working at the Mater Mathers Hospital since 2008 as a Specialist in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine. He is keenly interested in early human formation and the intricate mechanisms that drive fetal growth and development  He recently  completed a Masters from University of British Columbia (Vancouver - Ca) to study ethical frameworks and world views that influence decision making in the prenatal context.  Dr Thomas believes that medical ethics and the appropriate application of science and technology in perinatal medicine are challenging and need to be addressed urgently.

Dr Deborah Gilmour is a neonatologist at Mater Mothers’ Hospital, and clinical co-lead of the Cardiac and Surgical Neonatal Critical Care Unit. Her clinical and research interests include perinatal palliative care, ethics and neonatal retrieval medicine. She is dual trained as a general paediatrician and is an active member of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Dr Gilmour will be a part-time ethics fellow at the Centre for Children’s Health Ethics and Law in 2022.

David G. Kirchhoffer is the Director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre, a collaboration between the Archdiocese of Brisbane and the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at ACU. He is also a member of ACU's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry.

Dr Glenn Gardener is a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist and Director of the Mater Centre for Maternal Fetal Medicine at Mater Mothers’ Hospitals. He graduated from the University of Queensland with a medical degree in 1991. Following speciality training in obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Gardener went on to sub-specialise in maternal fetal medicine, working at King George V Hospital in Sydney and University College Hospital in London. Dr Gardener returned to Mater in 2003 as a consultant in Maternal Fetal Medicine, becoming Director of the Mater Centre for Maternal Fetal Medicine in 2009. Dr Gardener has a long held interest in fetal therapy including in-utero surgery and is currently the only specialist in Australia and New Zealand performing fetal surgery for diaphragmatic hernia and spina bifida. He regularly performs surgery for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, in-utero blood transfusions and other complex in-utero procedures. With a particular interest in the prevention of stillbirth, Dr Gardener is involved in research and is a current board member for the International Stillbirth Alliance and leads a Fetal Therapy Special Interest Group through the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ). Dr Gardener is actively involved in teaching obstetric ultrasound and passing on his skills to new doctors.

Associate Professor Anthony Herbert has been a Staff Specialist in Paediatric Palliative Care at Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service since 2008.  His service received the first of many requests for consultation in peri-natal palliative care in 2009.  He has interests in research especially focusing on communication. He has also developed an interest in education through participation in the QuoCCA project.  He has been a foundation member of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service at the Queensland Children’s Hospital since 2015.

Ben is a Paediatric and Fetal Cardiologist, working across public hospital campuses in South East Queensland. In his role as the paediatric and fetal cardiologist for the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service he has developed partnerships with multi-disciplinary teams across general paediatrics, maternal-fetal-medicine, neonatology, children’s critical care and adult cardiology. His particular interest in Fetal Cardiac care has allowed him to currently sit as the Founding Chair of the CSANZ Fetal Cardiology Working Group since 2019. This group’s mission is to foster a collaboration for the better care of fetal cardiac patients across both Australia and New Zealand.

He also has established a local fetal registry for the Mater Mother’s Hospital to prospectively collate important fetal cardiac data for future improvement in cardiac care. The additional aim of this registry is to be linked with similar registries that may be established across Australia and New Zealand from this work.

As an outworking of his interest in fetal cardiology and counselling and families, Ben is currently working as a Chief Investigator on a national $3M MRFF grant to establish Long Term Neurodevelopmental Screening for congenital heart patients throughout Australia.

Renee Muirhead is a neonatal clinical nurse consultant, in Brisbane Australia. She has almost 30 years experience in neonatology and midwifery. She graduated in 1992 from the University of Newcastle, obtaining her first registered nurse position in the special care nursery at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (RAHC) in Camperdown. During her time in Sydney, Renee has completed her graduate certificate in Neonatology and her graduate diploma in Midwifery. Her move to the Mater Mothers’ Hospital Brisbane in 2001, brought many career opportunities, including retrieval team member, research assistant, clinical nurse, clinical nurse facilitator, nursing research intern, and her current position of CNC. During this time, Renee has also completed her MN in Advanced practice and is currently enrolled in her PhD with the University of Queensland. Other than trying to improve how neonatal pain is assessed and managed, she is also passionate about ensuring that all families and babies receive care that is compassionate, comprehensive and centred around both the needs of the infant and family dyad.

Amanda is a Neonatal Clinical Nurse consultant in the Neonatal Critical care unit at Mater Mothers’ Hospital Brisbane. She has been working in Neonatal care for almost 15 years with a range of experience from Neonatal retrievals, education, quality improvement and nursing management. Amanda is passionate about providing compassionate and comprehensive care to enhance families experience and translating best practice into care.

Dr Trisha Prentice is a neonatologist and bioethicist at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne. She is internationally recognised for her novel mixed methodology research around end-of-life decision-making and moral distress. Dr Prentice serves on the Clinical Ethics and End-of-life committees at the RCH and was involved in developing statewide guidelines for management of preterm babies born at the edge of viability.

Ainsley Newson (she/her) is Professor of Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney. She draws on her background in bioethics, law and science to research the ethical and legal issues arising in genomics and human reproduction, with the aim to ensure these technologies are developed and used appropriately and fairly. Ainsley currently leads the ethics programs of research within the Australian Reproductive Genetic Carrier Screening Project (Mackenzie’s Mission) and Australian Genomics. Her other projects examine ethical aspects of the use of genomic technologies in prenatal testing, commercial influences in assisted reproduction and mitochondrial donation. She also has an interest in ethics and choice in birth. Ainsley’s research has generated over 150 academic, policy and general interest publications. In addition to her academic work, she provides regular commentary on bioethics issues in local and international news media. Ainsley has two primary school-aged children.

Lynn Gillam is the Clinical Ethicist and Academic Director of the Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. She is also Associate Professor in Health Ethics at the University of Melbourne, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Lynn works in clinical ethics case consultation, policy advice and research; teaches ethics in the university’s medical course and postgraduate social health program; is a member of a number of state and federal advisory bodies; and is the Chair of the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee.

Nikki is a Midwife and Midwifery Lecturer at Griffith University. Nikki is also completing her PhD on the topic of Using digital technologies to enhance midwifery student clinical learning in continuity of care models. Nikki pays respect to the Traditional Owners of Australia and acknowledges the disparity and dispossession of Country and Peoples caused by colonisation. Supporting women is critical to supporting their babies. Nikki would like all women to have the choice to birth safely and locally with a known midwife who practices trauma-informed continuity of care.

Prior to moving into Higher Education, Nikki worked as a Midwife in Australia in a range of settings including a metropolitan tertiary hospital, a regional maternity care hospital and remote Far North Queensland. She has two very different birth experiences. Nikki has first-hand experience as a mother of a baby requiring neonatal intensive care and paediatric surgery. She lives on Quandamooka land (in eastern Brisbane) with her husband and two small children.

Pieta Shakes is a Lecturer with James Cook University, the Executive Director of Through the Unexpected and is a credentialed mental health nurse. Overly enthusiastic about patient experience and person-centred care within fast-paced systems and society, Pieta has a particular interest in the psychosocial aspects of prenatal diagnosis. She has postgraduate qualifications in mental health nursing, diagnostic genomics and higher education teaching and learning. Currently undertaking PhD research into the maternal lived experience of receiving a prenatal diagnosis of agenesis of the corpus callosum, Pieta’s topic was inspired by her own experience.

Nasrin is a Clinical Midwifery Researcher and Consultant for Reproductive Genomics at Sydney Local Health District, RPA Hospital. Her research interests are in perinatal screening and the implementation of innovative, woman-centred approaches to optimise provision of non-invasive perinatal testing (NIPT) and carrier screening during the first trimester of pregnancy. She has recruited to the MRFF -funded national research project ‘Mackenzie’s Mission’ and managing this project at RPA hospital.
Nasrin is dedicated to improving the maternity care and health equity through research, leadership, and practice development. Previously, she was member of Council in ‘Migrant and Refugee Women’s Health Partnership’ representing Australian College of Midwives. Nasrin completed a MScMed in Reproductive Health and Human Genetics at the University of Sydney in 2006 and a PhD based on the diagnosis and management of vasa praevia in 2019. She has won several awards including the PSANZ David Henderson-Smart scholarship, conducting research in the development of the core outcome set for vasa praevia.

Amir Zayegh is a Neonatologist working at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. He has completed a Masters in Practical Ethics from the University of Oxford, and his interests include neonatal ethics, haemodynamics and point of care ultrasound.

Kylie is CEO and CoFounder of Miracle Babies Foundation.   She is a proud mother of 3 surviving children and shares her insights and experiences on her parenting journey to improve care and outcomes for lives impacted by a premature or sick birth.   Kylie is passionate in driving the expansion of services and resources across Australia for all families to be supported, educated and empowered.