Barbara Vernon

Barbara Vernon PhD is an Australian birth activist who lobbies government^[1] for improved provision of maternity services, particularly the expert use of midwives. She was the Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives from 2002 to 2010.

Born in New South Wales she moved to Canberra in the mid 1970s. She did an Honours Degree in Political Science at the Australian National University and in 1997 was awarded a PhD in public policy from Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland.

Vernon worked in the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, before becoming the President of the Maternity Coalition, a position she held for two years. While President, she and Dr Tracy Reibel drafted the National Maternity Action Plan. In 2003, she was appointed Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives. In 2008, she was appointed by Nicola Roxon, the Minister of Health, to the External Reference Group developing the National Primary Health Care Strategy.^[2]

Publications

Midwifery in Australia - emerging from the shadows with Jenny Gamble in "Midwifery - freedom to practise?", ed Lindsay Reid, Churchill Livingston Elsevier, 2007, ISBN 978-0-443-10312-4

References

Australian Midwifery News, Vol 3, No 2, 2003 p2, ISSN: 1446-5612
Birth Matters, Vol 5:3, 2002, p3, ISSN: 1443-7570
Interview with Mark Colvin PM. ABC Radio

Notes

^ Australian Birth and Postnatal Services Conference Speech by Senator Lyn Allison, 28 April 2007 [1]
^ National Primary Health Care Strategy, Press Release, Nicola Roxon

Persondata
Name	Vernon, Barbara
Alternative names
Short description	Birth activist
Date of birth
Place of birth	New South Wales, Australia
Date of death
Place of death