Dr Barbara Vernon is an Australian maternity activist and a government lobbyistAustralian Birth and Postnatal Services Conference Speech by Senator Lyn Allison, 28 April 2007 who seeks to improve provisions for maternity services; in particular, she advocates for the use of midwives. Born in New South Wales, she moved to Canberra in the mid-1970s. She earned 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.Maternity Choices Australia website Link While President, she and Tracy Reibel drafted the National Maternity Action Plan.Hon Barbara Scott, WA Parliament – Extract from Hansard 7 April 2004 PDF In 2003, she was appointed Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives, a position which she held from 2002 to 2010. In 2008, she was appointed by Nicola Roxon, the Minister of Health, to the External Reference Group developing the National Primary Health Care Strategy. National Primary Health Care Strategy, Press Release, Nicola Roxon
In 2011 Vernon was appointed CEO of Women's and Children's Healthcare Australasia, an Australian and New Zealand not-for-profit that represents over 200 maternity and children's hospitals and units.British Medical Journal, International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare Australasia Link
Publications Midwifery in Australia – emerging from the shadows with Jenny Gamble in "Midwifery – freedom to practise?", ed Lindsay Reid, Churchill Livingston Elsevier, 2007,
Notes
References Australian Midwifery News, Vol 3, No 2, 2003 p2, Birth Matters, Vol 5:3, 2002, p3, Interview with Mark Colvin PM. ABC Radio