Mary Steen

Mary Steen has recently been appointed as a Professor in Midwifery at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Division of Health Sciences, UniSA. She is the Chair of the Mothers, Babies & Families Research Group and facilitates the promotion of research and scholarly activities both nationally and internationally.

Mary qualified as a registered general nurse in 1986 and as a registered midwife in 1988 in the UK. She has a vast amount of nursing and midwifery clinical experience in hospital and community settings. She became interested in research in 1990 and undertook her first Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in 1993. Her PhD research studies investigated and explored the care and consequences of perineal trauma after childbirth. This research involved the designing and development of a patented cooling pain relief treatment known as the ‘femepad’ which is now commercially available throughout the world.

Mary is interested in a wide remit of midwifery and family health issues such as: raising the profile of midwifery care and research, maternal health and well-being, antenatal and postnatal exercises, active birth and natural pain management options, holistic approaches to birth, managing emotions and family relationships; parenting, family violence, involving fathers in maternity care, digital communication and technologies for maternity service. Her wide remit of interests has led her to undertake several service development projects and research studies in developed and developing countries, with the overall aim to improve the care and services for women, babies and their families.