 This week researchers from the Bendigo Family Study presented at PSANZ 2026. This is the largest research conference focusing on perinatal health in Australia and New Zealand.
Research student Madeleine Carman presented on the impact of common pregnancy complications in rural women. Her research addressed both quantitative and qualitative outcomes. The key results were that 31%, 28%, 11%, 87%, 69% 65% and 69% of women experienced constipation, itch, headaches, nausea/vomiting, back/pelvic pain, fatigue, and urinary difficulties that were a moderate or major concern in their pregnancy. In thematic analysis, the main themes emerging about their constipation symptoms were of pain, discomfort supplements and the need for laxatives. The main themes around itch concerns were location, consequences and associated skin conditions. The main concerns around headache were migraines and safe use of medications. The main nausea/vomiting themes were duration, severity and social factors. The main back/pelvic pain themes were pain severity, radiation, impact on sleep and mobility. The main fatigue themes were impact, snoring, nocturia and inter-relationship with other symptoms. The main urinary themes were frequency, nocturia and incontinence. Ms Madeleine Carman concluded: "The minor maladies of pregnancy affected most women and caused moderate or major concern. Further attention should be paid to education and management." Professor Julie Quinlivan stated: "We are pleased to highlight the needs of rural women in pregnancy so we can help to improve the delivery of maternity services." Professor Julie Quinlivan Chief investigator
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Bendigo Family Study staff at Parliament House Canberra to help Australia eradicate cervical cancer3/2/2026  In exciting news, Bendigo Family Study researchers Professor Julie Quinlivan and Associate Professor Rodney Petersen today attended Parliament House in Canberra to support the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC) with its goal to eradicate cervical cancer in Australia. The ACPCC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cervical cancer through HPV vaccination, screening, and laboratory and educational services. The ACPCC support the 5-yearly HPV-based Cervical Screening Test (for ages 25-74) and HPV self-collection testing. After a breakfast meeting where we were pleased to see many Parliamentary Members present, we heard updates from senior program leaders. We also looked in at the Parliament House dining room that was converted into a cervical screening clinic for today. This is the first time Parliament house in Canberra has hosted a cervical cancer screening clinic and we were pleased to hear that many staff had signed up for a test. Key outcomes of the Australian government and ACPCC program were discussed including reaching a milestone of 80% vaccination. We still have work to do to secure the goal of 90% vaccination but are well on the way to achieving this. Australia was the first country to move to a HPV screening approach for cervical cancer, and the program has unfolded as predicted with an initial increase in detection rates of HPV and a subsequent fall in cervical cancer rates. We also heard today about the success of the cervical cancer self collection program. Now over 30% of all tests are performed using self collect methods. In a moving consumer presentation we heard how self collection can help encourage under screened women to find the time for a swab, as opposed to being confronted by the full speculum examination. Underscreened women remain the main barrier to cervical cancer prevention. The results of these combined initiatives speak for themselves with Australia now having one of the lowest rates of cervical cancer in the world. However, the goal remains to eradicate cervical cancer in Australia and also to help our global neighbours develop their own programs. The Bendigo Family Study is collecting data on cervical cancer screening in our population of new mothers. We hope our research will enable strategies to be developed to find and screen that under screened population of women who now carry the majority of Australia's cervical cancer risk burden. Rural women are more likely to be underscreened for cervical cancer as they face the barriers of distance from care. A long day with an early start, but as a bonus we managed to secure the dawn views from the entrance hall of Parliament house - a truely beautiful scene. Best wishes Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study   We are pleased to announce that several of our research team in the Bendigo Family Study and Canberra Family Study have had abstracts accepted to present at PSANZ 2026 in Perth.
Research will be presented on the common pregnancy complications that affect pregnant women such as morning sickness, constipation, sleep disturbance, back pain and itch. We also look at discrimination. The research to be presented has evaluated both quantitative and qualitative impacts. Another research project has evaluated the impact of fertility treatments on how women cope in pregnancy. It particularly examined whether IVF pregnancy was linked to aspects of cyberchrondria. This condition occurs when women feel anxious and resort to excessive use of the internet. The evaluation of cyberchondria in rural women who have undergone fertility therapy is a world first presentation and particularly relevant to Australian rural women who face enormous barriers of distance to care. Another research study has evaluated the impact of the changes in national screening for syphilis in pregnancy to determine if coverage has been enhanced and identify who might still be missed from screening. Our final presentation has considered whether we can enhance breast feeding in women with diabetes in pregnancy by evaluating the benefit of enhanced midwifery lead breastfeeding services. Congratulations to Madeleine Carmen, Wendy Hodge, Emma Wilson and Coe Bolong. I would also like to congratulate Kyra Murray, one of my Masters students, for having 2 abstracts accepted. Kyra is researching the impact of congenital uterine anomalies on women's health. We look forward to sharing our results next year. Merry Christmas everyone. Professor Julie Quinlivan Chief Investigator.  The Bendigo Family Study team have been busy coding data from our new grandparents. We hope to be able to understand the key role played by grandparents in rural communities.
We already know that grandparents play a valuable role in raising grandchildren with a 2021 Australian survey of 2383 Australian grandparents finding that most grandparents (63%) provide care for their grandchildren if the youngest grandchild is under 10 years of age (1,2). However care is often on a casual or occasional basis (62% of those providing child care), compared to regular (39%) or school holiday (26%) child care basis (1,2). About one in five grandparents provide a combination of these, such as providing school holiday child care as well as occasional child care (1,2). Usually grandparents provide child care to support parents’ work. Grandparents’ desire to connect and build relationships with grandchildren and family was fundamental to them taking on this child care (1,2). In the Bendigo Family Study we are exploring grandparents attitudes towards medical innovations, as well as their capacity to access management of chronic disease in the community, and the impact of intergenerational care. We hope to have some early data to present to the PSANZ ASM in Perth in 2026. Best wishes Professor Julie Quinlivan Chief investigator References 1. AIFS. Grandparents and childcare in Australia. AIHW 2022. See at: https://aifs.gov.au/research/research-reports/grandparents-and-child-care-australia 2. Baxter, J. (2022). Grandparents and child care in Australia. (Families in Australia Survey report). Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.  This week Dr Emma Adams presented at the International Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology conference held in Seoul, South Korea to an international audience. She told them about our Bendigo Family Study and the results from her research evaluating whether mothers who present to hospital with all required antenatal investigations experienced better pregnancy outcomes.
Her key findings were that new mothers who presented with all required tests exhibited lower levels of anxiety, with this effect persisting after the birth of their baby. This highlights the importance of education to ensure all antenatal women present for care in both a timely manner and with all required investigations so accurate triaging and management can commence. Recruitment for this and all studies within the Bendigo Family Study remain ongoing. Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study Sleep and anxiety in pregnancy - Bendigo Family Study presentation at ISPOG 2025 in South Korea4/7/2025  This week Dr Yong Shi Zhang presented at the International Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology conference held in Seoul, South Korea to an international audience. She told them about our Bendigo Family Study and the results from her research evaluating the impact of sleep in pregnancy on the mental health of new parents.
Her key findings were that new mothers who reported disordered sleep in pregnancy had significantly higher mental health symptoms after birth. In contrast there was no significant differences observe din new fathers. Recruitment for this and all studies within the Bendigo Family Study remain ongoing. Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study  The Bendigo Family Study congratulate young investigator Dr Adele Lourensz who presented her research at PSANZ 2025 in Brisbane. Dr Lourensz how regional and rural pregnant women and their partners access reliable healthcare information and antenatal care at a time when regional and rural obstetric services are being consolidated. As part of the Bendigo Family Study we sought to explore how a cohort of regional and rural parents secured information and care.
The key findings were: * Both new mothers and fathers ranked their GP as the most substantial provider of healthcare information during the pregnancy (mothers 29.9%, fathers 26.7%). * Mothers ranked obstetricians as the second and midwives as the third main source of information. * However, new fathers ranked midwives as the second and obstetricians as the third key source of information. * Family, friends and the internet were ranked well below healthcare professionals for impact. The results reinforce the critical role of rural and regional general practitioners in pregnancy care. Maintaining an adequate GP workforce is essential for regional and rural maternity care. regards Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study  The Bendigo Family Study is pleased to report that another of our young investigators, Dr Yong Shi Zhang, successfully presented her research at PSANZ 2025 that evaluated whether mode of delivery impacted on parenting confidence in rural parents. Maternal psychopathology and self-esteem during childbirth may impact on parenting self-efficacy but there are significant cultural overlays in outcomes. It has been proposed that caesarean section birth may adversely impact upon maternal parenting and breastfeeding confidence.
The impact of delivery mode in regional and rural communities within Australia and the impact on partners is unknown. This study aimed to assess parenting confidence of mothers who delivered by CS and their partners in relation to parenting and breastfeeding confidence. In this case control (mothers matched for age and parity) subsidy the key findings were that: * Breastfeeding confidence was similar between the two groups (Vaginal delivery 50.2 sd 14 vs CS 48.5 sd 15; p=0.61). * Interestingly, new mothers reported higher parenting confidence following CS (vaginal 21.2 sd 5 vs CS 22.2 sd 5; p<0.001) but no difference was observed in parenting confidence between new fathers by delivery mode (vaginal 21.2 sd 5 vs CS 21.1 sd 6; p=0.85). Our results are reassuring and do not support a finding that Caesarean Section mode of birth adversely impacts on breastfeeding or parenting confidence in our regional and rural parents. regards Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study  We congratulate one of our young investigators Dr Jemma Billinghurst who presented her research that investigated whether our new rural parents are vulnerable to cyberchondria. Cyberchondria is a condition where individuals experience distress about a health-related condition that causes repeated or excessive online searches for health-related information. Cyberchondria is common in people with high levels of “health anxiety” aggravated by poor access to healthcare information.
Cyberchondria is associated with adverse consequences including impacts on work and social capacity and may predispose individuals to be falsely reassured or conversely excessively prompted to seek medical attention. Regional and rural families may be prone to cyberchondria due to difficulty of access from care providers. We explored cyberchondria scores in a sample of new regional and rural parents who were enrolled in our Bendigo Family Study. The key findings were: * Cyberchondria scores were significantly higher in new mothers compared to new fathers (27.3 (8.2) vs 23.5 (7.1); p=0.04). * This gender difference was due to significant differences in the "excessive subscale" domain (9.8(2.8) vs 7.0(2.6); p<0.0001). The other subscale domains were not significantly different between new mothers and fathers (all p>0.05). Excessive subscale refers to an excessive need to seek information out on the internet. New mothers in regional and rural locations may be vulnerable to cyberchondria, in particular excessive searching for health-related information. We plan further studies to explore how we can ensure optimal delivery of reliable information to new rural parents to prevent harmful excessive searching for information on the internet. regards Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study  The Bendigo Family Study congratulates Tomas Petersen, one of the research students helping on this trial, who presented at the 2025 Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific meeting in Brisbane. The study explored the attitudes of new parents and grandparents towards genetic testing. Previous Australian studies have indicated that new mothers are reluctant to consider genetic cancer testing with concerns expressed over possible future discrimination. However, these studies were over a decade old and genetic cancer testing advocacy and protections against discrimination are now being implemented in Australian law. Further, new genetic tests for individualised healthcare around diet and exercise are being developed that might enhance overall health.
The study explored the attitudes of new parents and grandparents to hypothetical questions around genetic testing for specific cancer risks, and individualised diet and exercise genetic tests that could be significant for future health. The key findings were that * 76% of new parents and grandparents would have a genetic test if it provided them with a 25% risk of a specific cancer. * 84% of responders stated that they would have a genetic blood test that helped identify a preferred exercise pattern or dietary pattern for individualised health. * Only 24% of our new parents and grandparents felt that a positive genetic test might result in discrimination. There were no differences in attitudes between mothers and fathers or between parents and grandparents (all p>0.05). These findings differ from our study conducted only a decade ago where rates of acceptance were lower and indicate an increasingly positive attitude in new parents and grandparents towards individualised genetic test for cancer and lifestyle management. The abstract and poster presentation can be viewed in detail at researchgate. regards Professor Julie Quinlivan Bendigo Family Study |
Bendigo Family Study teamWe are a team of healthcare professionals running one of Australia's largest intergenerational rural family studies from the fabulous City of Bendigo. Scroll down to read our blog and click on menu to learn more about the study. Archives
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