On Friday, 14 October 2011, MCHR celebrated a milestone birthday: 20 years devoted to research and advocacy to improve the health of mothers and their infants.

It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase and discuss our current research, recent findings and future research challenges and to celebrate with close to 140 participants. We were joined on the day by a diverse range of people: current and past research collaborators, clinicians, community representatives, maternity services policy makers, and former MCHR staff and students.

The conference was held in the comfortable surroundings of the John Scott Meeting House at La Trobe University in Bundoora and judging by the feedback received, all had a stimulating day. There was great interest, lively discussion and some enjoyable reminiscing about the past 20 years. New contacts were made and new ideas born.

The day’s program, which included oral and poster presentations, highlighted research undertaken by current staff and students, across three themes:

• Social contexts and motherhood;
• Promoting normal birth; and
• Supporting breastfeeding through research.

You can download the full Conference Program here. A summary report of the presentations and some PowerPoint presentations as well as contact details for individual researchers is also available.

The fourth and final session of the conference was dedicated to a panel discussion about "Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood: where do we want to be in 2031?" Panellists were each asked to name the three most important perinatal research questions they hoped would be answered between 2011 and 2031.
The panellists represented local, national and international perspectives and come from government, community, clinical and population research, and health services. They included: Ms Anne Colahan (Manager, Maternal and Child Health Service, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development), Ms Tanya Farrell (Clinical Director, Maternity Services, The Royal Women's Hospital), A/Prof Christine Roberts (Research Director and NHMRC Research Fellow, Clinical and Population Perinatal Health Research, University of Sydney), Prof Patti Janssen (Director MPH Program, The University of British Columbia, School of Population & Public Health, Vancouver, Canada), Ms Kate Mortensen (Manager, Lactation Resource Centre, Australian Breastfeeding Association) and Mr Greg Adkins (Director, Board of Directors, Family Planning Victoria).

• More effective and innovative education across the community about sexual health and family planning to reduce unplanned pregnancy and promote sexual health;
• Improved understanding of gestation length and knowledge about when pregnancy comes to a physiological end;
• Prevention of congenital anomalies;
• Maternity care provision for women in their communities;
• Better understanding about, and reduction of, adverse outcomes for women and babies, particularly preterm birth and stillbirth;
• Addressing the rising rates of postpartum haemorrhage;
• Better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and infants;
• Reduction of ‘unnecessary’ caesarean sections, especially in first births;

• The promise of perinatal trial outcomes realised in practice;
• Equity in participation in perinatal research to ensure good evidence for our multiculturally diverse childbearing population;
• What will midwives, obstetricians and the whole maternity service system look like in 2031? Training and workforce development to provide good evidence-based maternity care;
• Achievement of breastfeeding as the norm for feeding infants, with better understanding of breastfeeding problems and their management;
• Harnessing electronic information and communication resources and delivery systems to provide women and families with the health information and advice they need.

Prof Hal Swerissen, Executive Dean of the Faculty, congratulated MCHR on the strength of its research over the past twenty years and also announced the Judith Lumley PhD Scholarship in Mother and Child Health Research in honour of the tremendous contribution made to perinatal and maternity services research by the Centre's Founding Director, Professor Emerita Judith Lumley. Prof Janet Hiller, Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Australian Catholic University, then reflected on the many and varied contributions the Centre has made since it was established in 1991. In particular, she mentioned the leadership and mentoring of perinatal researchers provided by Judith Lumley, and also the focus on rigorous method and building the necessary evidence that is characteristic of all the Centre's research endeavours.

Finally the current Director of MCHR, Prof Rhonda Small, concluded the day with some reminiscences from the past 20 years. She also thanked staff and students, both current and past, the many funding bodies who have provided the necessary resources and all those who have collaborated with MCHR in conducting research to improve the health of mothers and infants.