Prenatal diagnostic testing and atypical chromosome abnormalities following combined first-trimester screening: implications for contingent models of non-invasive prenatal testing
Anthea studied Medicine at Monash University and in 2010, she was awarded a Rhodes’ Scholarship at Oxford University where she undertook PhD studies in Public Health. Her studies examined the relationship between socioeconomic levels and poor maternal outcomes in pregnancy, clearly establishing that better pregnancy outcomes are strongly associated with being more affluent. In that work, she explored some of the reasons for the social gradient in maternal health outcomes in the National Health Service (NHS – United Kingdom health service).
Anthea returned to Australia in 2012 to complete her clinical training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She was appointed as one of two inaugural ‘Mercy Perinatal Fellows’ in 2017. Anthea now works as an Obstetrician at the Mercy Hospital for Women, whilst continuing her research in perinatal epidemiology. Her current research focusses on exploring the impact of pregnancy events and interventions on early perinatal and school-aged education and developmental outcomes for children. In 2019, she was awarded 3-years of NHMRC research funding through a New Ideas Grant, to investigate the association between adjunct medications used in IVF pregnancy and childhood outcomes. This and other projects will utilise data linkage of major population datasets in Australia, Sweden and Scotland.
Anthea is currently supervising two PhD students within the Department, Dr Amber Kennedy and Dr Natasha Pritchard. Amber is undertaking a major data linkage project investigating the school-aged developmental and educational outcomes of children conceived via IVF vs natural conception. Natasha is using population-wide data to explore which growth charts best identify infants and mothers at risk of adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes.