Dr Mary-Ann Davey is a perinatal epidemiologist with a clinical background as a midwife and nurse. 

 

Her main research focus is on improving maternity care, including strategies to safely reduce caesarean sections, reduce preterm birth and stillbirth, and to improve breastfeeding outcomes. Her experience includes co-ordination of several randomised controlled trials of infant vaccines, resulting in the routine inclusion of hepatitis B vaccination for all newborn babies. She co-led a large randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery to reduce caesarean births, and another trial of proactive peer support to increase the duration of breastfeeding. Both of these achieved significant improvements in the respective outcomes, with no reduction in safety, and favourable maternal experience. The results of the caseload midwifery trial have led to this model of care being implemented in a large number of maternity services. In small rural services it has enabled local maternity care to continue when other models were no longer feasible. It has also been offered to vulnerable populations including Aboriginal women. 

 

Dr Davey designed a number of performance indicators of quality perinatal care which are included in Safer Care Victoria's annual Perinatal Services Performance Indicator suite, and have been incorporated into a real-time maternity 'dashboard' that provides prompt feedback about care to maternity services. She has also conducted several cohort studies related to short- and long-term maternal and child outcomes after a variety of perinatal exposures including gestation at birth, induction of labour, mode of birth, complications of pregnancy. 

 

Dr Davey has supervised 7 doctoral students to completion (2 as principal supervisor) and 9 BMedSc(Hons) students. She has over 100 publications (most in Q1 peer-reviewed journals), and has been an investigator on projects awarded $5.9 million in grant funding.