Professor Caroline Homer, Dr Christine Catling and Sabera Turkmani attended the 3rd Women Deliver Conference held in Copenhagen in May 2016. With over 5500 delegates, this conference is the leading global advocate for girls’ and women’s health, right, and well-being. It catalyses action by bringing together diverse voices and interests to drive progress, with a particular focus on maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights. Keynotes included Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Denmark, Annie Lennox, Julia Gillard, Helen Clark and many other global leaders.
Sabera presented in a concurrent session on women’s participation in economic development. She spoke about ‘health systems as employers’ and put forward bold solutions that maximize socio-economic gains for women in developing context. She also shared a powerful story from her experience working with women in Afghanistan with focus on the struggle to build the capacity of midwives to deliver respectful, gender-sensitive care to promote safe motherhood in a conservative political and social environment, as well as to establish midwifery as a platform for empowering women.
Caroline was involved in presentation about the State of the World’s Midwifery work and about ways to achieve quality of care for women and their newborns. There were also a number of UTS students and Alumni present including Michaela Michel-Schuldt (PhD student) and Lizzie Nicholl (UTS Alumni – BMid graduate). Caroline also attended a reception hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Denmark and attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Denmark and Julia Gillard, former Australian Prime Minister and Natasha Stott Despoja AM as Australia's Ambassador for Women and Girls.