About Brighter Beginnings

‘Brighter Beginnings: maternal* wellness and the first 2000 days’ is a University of Canberra Area of Research Strength. It focuses on optimising health and wellbeing so that mothers and babies have the best possible start to life/parenthood. Maternal health and the first 2000 days (conception to age 5) is recognised as a critical period which can impact health and wellbeing throughout the lifespan. Pregnancy and parenthood have been described as ‘teachable moments’ – naturally occurring life transitions or events that motivate people to make positive health and lifestyle changes. Our research seeks to exploit this significant time to promote health, build capacity for good health, informed decision making, positive parenting, strong relationships, social connectedness, and healthy lifestyles.

Brighter Beginnings’ members are from the disciplines of midwifery, psychology, nursing, pharmacy, dietetics, exercise physiology pharmacy, speech pathology and optometry. There is also consumer representation in a partnership with the Health Care Consumers’ Association and Multicultural Hub Canberra.

Our special focus is Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). GDM complicates up to 15% of all pregnancies and approximately 41, 000 births per annum in Australia. Our goal is to improve services to women with GDM, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. In laying the foundation for this work we are building our relationships with multicultural and consumer organisations in the ACT and healthcare providers in the clinical setting. We have conducted collaborative systematic reviews focusing on the healthcare needs of women with GDM and we are developing an instrument to measure the Holistic Healthcare needs of women with GDM.

Contemporary healthcare is steeped in pathology which focuses on disease and the question: “What is making a person ill?" We are attracted to the concept of salutogenesis which focuses on health and the question: “What is making a person healthy?"

This theory fits well with our philosophy which includes that:

• pregnancy and birth are physiological processes that are embedded in the social, emotional, and spiritual fabric of women’s lives
• positive maternal and child health interventions impact health in the short and long term, regardless of pre-existing health or social complexities

_{*We recognise gender fluidity and that the monikers maternal, mother and woman will not be appropriate for all. We use these terms in the collective sense while encouraging the use of gender appropriate terms in the individual context.}