Deborah Sims is a mixed methods researcher, midwife and child and family health nurse with both clinical and research experience in early parenting support and in perinatal mental health.

Melissa is in the PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Curtin University. She obtained a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) from Murdoch University in 2013 and a Master of Suicidology degree from Griffith University in 2015. She has worked in both the community services and public health sectors, including project and policy roles within the WA Department of Health and the Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) where worked on substantial mental health system reform projects. Her current research is focused on the prevention and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the perinatal period. Melissa’s professional interests include women’s and youth mental health, obsessive compulsive and related disorders, eating disorders, community mental health literacy, and suicide prevention.

Virginia Schmied is Professor of Midwifery and Deputy Dean, Director of Research in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University and she holds a Visiting Professorship at University of Central Lancashire (UK). Her research focuses on transition to motherhood, perinatal mental health, postnatal care, breastfeeding and infant feeding decisions, with a strong focus on the organisation of healthcare, workplace culture and the facilitators and barriers to the delivery of high quality maternity and child health care. Most recently, Virginia and her colleagues have been studying experiences of women and men from diverse cultural backgrounds living in western Sydney.

Karen’s educational background is in Psychology, Mathematics and Applied Statistics. After migrating to Melbourne, Australia, in 2005, Karen worked in public health, first at the Key Centre for Women’s Health at Melbourne University, and then at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Her research has focused on modifiable risk factors which contribute to perinatal mental health problems among women and men, and how symptoms of depression and anxiety interact with parents’ relationships with their partners and infants. She is currently employed as a Research Fellow at Deakin University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery (Western Health Partnership). Karen is Secretary of the Australasian Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health and serves on the Steering Committee of the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium.