SAHMRI Women and Kids

18/10/2025

Have you previously contributed to SAHMRI’s Women and Kids research? 🤰

We’re hosting a special morning tea for parents and their babies who have been impacted by premature birth to celebrate World Prematurity Day.

What’s involved?
👉 Updates on our important research
👉 Fun activities for your little ones
👉 Meet other families who have participated in trials at SAHMRI

Learn more and register to attend ➡️ https://sahmri.au/WPD-2025

03/12/2024

Congratulations to Prof Maria Makrides and the team on this well-earned recognition in the latest NHMRC impact study!

To coincide with last week’s World Prematurity Day, the National Health and Medical Research Council - NHMRC have released their latest impact case study on omega-3 fatty acids in prematurity. 🤰

The case study details the history and impact of the work our Executive Director Prof Maria Makrides has led into omega-3 supplementation as a preterm birth prevention.

Read it here 📰 https://sahmri.au/NHMRC-Case-Study

16/09/2024

Folic acid is an essential nutrient during the first three months of pregnancy to reduce the chance of having a baby with a neural tube defect. 👶

However, we don’t know whether continuing to take folic acid after 12 weeks is beneficial or may have negative effects. The FIG Study aims to find this out.

Participants will receive free multivitamin and mineral supplements for the rest of their pregnancy.

Find out more ➡️ https://sahmri.au/FIGStudy

27/05/2024

Members of our Aboriginal Communities And Families Health Research Alliance (ACRA) team recently attended an information session by SMS4dads. 👶

This free service is designed to help Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander dads all across Australia to:
-connect with bubs
-support mum
-look after themselves

Find out more and sign up ➡️ https://www.sms4dads.com.au/deadly-dads

19/05/2024

Today we celebrate International Clinical Trials Day! 🥼

Our clinical trials span a range of areas including premature birth, pregnancy, nutritional interventions and Aboriginal health. We have an incredible team of individuals working on these exciting projects and are grateful to all the participants that make our research possible!

Find out more about our studies ➡️ https://sahmri.au/SWK-Research

17/05/2024

We’re seeking community members to join a Yarning circle to discuss the strengths and challenges of pregnancy and the first years of life. 🤰

The ICARE Program has been created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, to support positive health outcomes and policy translation for our Mob.

If you’re part of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community in South Australia and would like to share your feedback, please email renae.walker@sahmri.com.

17/11/2023

Today is World Prematurity Day, a time to raise awareness of the challenges and burden of preterm birth. 👶

Across the world, one in 10 babies will be born prematurely. Our incredible research team are working hard every day to improve this statistic.

02/08/2023

We are delighted to announce that all MILQ Study milestones have now been completed! 👶

The MILQ Study enrolled 1828 South Australia families and aimed to collect information about how term-born babies are fed over the first 12 months of life. The information gathered will be used to inform the support services at South Australian hospitals and postnatal care providers and we look forward to sharing these findings.

Sending a big thank you to all of our wonderful families, staff, and recruiting hospitals for their ongoing support!

20/07/2023

Can you help our researchers?

Our team of SAHMRI Women and Kids researchers are looking for South Australians to complete this short online survey about maternal health

By providing your input, you can help us advance our understanding of current health promotion practices here in South Australia

Click the link here to participate in our anonymous survey: https://ow.ly/ie2Q50PgHzF

14/04/2023

We're all set up and ready to go for the Pregnancy Babies and Children's Expo this weekend!

Come past our stall and enter our guessing competition to go in the draw to WIN a $100 Baby Bunting voucher!

📆 15th and 16th of April
🕙 10am - 4pm
📍 Adelaide Showground, Wayville
🎟️ https://bit.ly/PBCExpoTickets

04/04/2023

Our team are excited to share that we will be back at the Pregnancy Babies and Children's Expo next Saturday and Sunday! 🤰🏻

We also have a 50% off discount code for our community, just enter the discount code R9CAD9 when booking your tickets!

📆 15th and 16th of April
🕙 10am - 4pm
📍 Adelaide Showground, Wayville
🎟️ https://bit.ly/PBCExpoTickets

01/03/2023

A big congratulations to Dr Jacqueline Gould, Research Fellow here at SAHMRI Women and Kids who has just won Healthy Development Adelaide's 2022 MCR Publication Award! 🏆

Congratulations to our HDA MCR Publication Award winner for 2022 – Dr Jacqueline Gould, SAHMRI Women and Kids, SAHMRI.

Jacqueline will receive $500 for her winning publication - Neonatal Docosahexaenoic Acid in Preterm Infants and Intelligence at 5 Years.

Jacqueline F. Gould, Maria Makrides, Robert A. Gibson, Thomas R. Sullivan, Andrew J. McPhee, Peter J. Anderson, Karen P. Best, Mary Sharp, Jeanie L.Y. Cheong, Gillian F. Opie, Javeed Travadi, Jana M. Bednarz, Peter G. Davis, Karen Simmer, Lex W. Doyle, Carmel T. Collins.

New England Journal of Medicine.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206868

Preterm children are more likely to have lower IQ scores and cognitive impairments compared with term-born children, and there have been no improvements in the IQ scores of preterm children over the last 30 years. We showed that supplying the amount of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) very preterm babies would get if they remained in the womb results in these children having an IQ that is 3.5 points higher at 5 years of age compared with standard feeding practices. This discovery is one intervention that can help restore their cognition. The NEJM recognised the potential impact of these findings and created a 2 min Quick Take video, Slides, and Research Summary to highlight the results. The publication attracted global attention across >80 media outlets and is in the top 5% of research outputs scored by Altmetric (score >500).