It will be a great Australian day when John puts the NICF out of business.
Congratulations Prof John Newnham AM – 2020 Senior Australian of the Year.
West Australian obstetrics professor John Newnham is a renowned authority on the prevention of pre-term birth, the leading cause of death and disability in Australian children up to five years of age. After leading the first study on the lifetime impacts of pregnancy, he developed a program that reduced by eight per cent the number of pre-term births in Western Australia. The program was rolled out nationally in 2018.
“It is now time for prevention of pre-term birth to become a national priority for Australia,” Professor Newnham said in his acceptance speech.
Worldwide, 15 million babies are born prematurely each year.
In Australia, 8 per cent of babies are born pre-term and that rate doubles in the Indigenous population.
Photo: Peter Cursley CF, NICF & Professor John Newnham AM, 2020 Senior Australian of the Year.