CSTEROIDTrial

27/08/2025

Congratulations to Billy Callinan-Sands for being our August C*STAR of the month! 🌠

Billy is a midwife from John Hunter Hospital, NSW, Australia, who has shared:

“Working in a high-risk midwifery group practice model, I am able to build a very good rapport with my patients. Most of the women are very interested in participating in the study if it helps improve health outcomes for mums and babies.”

01/08/2025

Congratulations to the Midwives at North Shore Hospital (Te Whatu Ora Waitematā) for our July C*STAR of the month!

Here is what the team shared about their experience with the C*STEROID trial:

“Thank you so much for recognising us. We have been really happy to support the C*STEROID trial and are proud of what we’ve achieved together. We are pleased to be able to help birthing mothers contribute to an internationally important research study that will improve outcomes for future māmā and pepi.”

21/07/2025

We have fantastic news to start the week—the C*STEROID Trial has now officially recruited over 1,500 babies! 🎊🥳

This is an exciting milestone to reach, and we couldn’t be more proud of such a massive team effort! Every single one of you has played a part in making this happen—your commitment, enthusiasm, and teamwork continue to amaze us. ✨

With 30 sites now active across Australia and New Zealand, and more on the way, the trial is going from strength to strength with monthly figures on a strong upward trend.

Here’s to the next chapter—2000 is just around the corner… 😄

14/07/2025

Congratulations to Ayumi Salim at St George Hospital for being our June C*STAR of the month! 🌟🎉

Ayumi is a midwife working in antenatal clinic at St George Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Here is what she shared about her experience with the C*STEROID trial:

"I really like engaging in conversation with women eligible to be recruited into the trial and promoting it amongst the antenatal clinic.”

23/06/2025

Congratulations to Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s at Sunshine Hospital for recruiting over 100 babies to the C*STEROID trial! 🩵

Please read about their recent achievement here:

In a remarkable achievement, Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s at Sunshine Hospital has become the first Australian hospital to recruit 100 people for a medical research trial helping newborn babies breathe. As part of the C*STEROID Trial, researchers are exploring whether administering cortico...

17/04/2025

Congratulations to the Midwives at Te Puna Wairua for being our C*STAR of the month!🌠

Te Puna Wairua is an Iwi-led maternity hub in Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand.

Midwives at Te Puna Wairua often help by giving the second dose of study drug to our C*STEROID participants and letting us use their rooms for study visits so that wāhine don’t need to travel into town and allow them to participate in the trial.

We’re truly grateful for this vital support from the local community in Porirua.

Here is what they shared about their experience working on this research:

“Thank you so much for this honor! At Te Puna Wairua - Hapu Mama Hub, we had the privilege of facilitating the C*STEROID trial: allowing wāhine to participate in clinical trials within their local community without the need for extra visits to Wellington. We are eager to see the results of this research and to determine whether administering antenatal steroids closer to term before a planned C-section is the right approach.”

13/03/2025

Dear All C*STEROID Investigators,

Please remember to join our investigators meeting next Tuesday, 18 March, at the PSANZ Annual Congress 2025.

We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane!😊

10/03/2025

Congratulations, Edwina McLean for being our C*STAR of the Month!💙🎉

Edwina is a midwife who works in the clinic at Barwon Health in Australia.

Here is what Edwina shared about her experience with the C*STEROID trial:

“Being a midwife I’ve always heard the question ‘should we be giving steroids to ALL elective caesars no matter the gestation?’ because we often see these babies require more respiratory support or even tactile stimulation at birth since the baby isn’t prepared for birth like those who have experienced labour or ruptured membrane. So I was very keen to assist in any way I could with this trial and I think most midwives and doctors at our service have taken it on board to help recruit so we will finally have an evidence based answer.”

28/02/2025

Today marks a significant milestone for the C*STEROID trial, as we have successfully reached the halfway point in our overall recruitment goal! 💙🎉

We are pleased to announce that a total of 1,274 babies have now been recruited to the C*STEROID Trial.

THANK YOU to all those involved in this meaningful research, and we look forward to continuing this journey with you.

30/01/2025

Congratulations, Dr Philip Beattie for being our C*STAR of the month! ⭐🎉

Phil works as a private obstetrician at National Women’s Health, Auckland and is great at offering and discussing the C*STEROID Trial to the women he cares for.

We asked Phil to share his experience about C*STEROID and his response was:

“Working with the whole C*STEROID team is great, especially the amazing research midwives”.

Photo (from left): Dr Philip Beattie, Tracy McConachie (Auckland research midwife)

30/01/2025

One of our previous C*STEROID participants has kindly shared their experience after taking part in the trial. For more information on the C*STEROID Trial, please visit our website: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/liggins/in-the-community/clinical-studies/clinical-studies-pregnancy/c-steroid-trial.html

“Our local hospital team alerted us to the C*STEROID Trial. My husband is a scientist, and I am a journalist, and as this was our first child we were doing a lot of reading and trying to make evidence-based decisions. We liked the idea that we could contribute to science that would help other people. We also assumed the team would be a bit short on participants, as it’s not very common to be able to schedule a c-section in advance! I found the paperwork a bit wordy, but my husband took the time to go through it and explain it all. What convinced me was that the baby would actually get extra blood sugar monitoring not normally done for newborns - and that reading later helped us in hospital, when it alerted the nurses our baby’s level had dipped a bit in the early morning hours because she was cold. We found the whole process very smooth, the baby certainly appeared to feel nothing, and the staff were great - so very helpful, even when I caught COVID right before taking part. I’d be happy to take part again and would strongly encourage anyone else who can, to also be a part of this trial. I feel like my baby and I were a little part of history, and hopefully one day it becomes a treatment that can help vulnerable newborn babies when they need it most.”

Story shared with consent. Photo not associated with the C*STEROID participant.

19/12/2024

Thank you for another fabulous year!🎄❄️

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our C*STEROID mothers and their little bundles of joy. Your contribution to research will help to improve health outcomes for newborns.

We would also like to acknowledge all our amazing C*STEROID study teams across New Zealand and Australia for their incredible work throughout the year.

May your holiday season sparkle with love, joy, and laughter.

Sincere regards,

The C*STEROID Management Team