Suzanne Belton

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Menzies School of Health Research

Vaccines are temperature‐sensitive, and they may lose effectiveness without correct storage. Research in remote Australia raised questions regarding the integrity of the vaccine cold chain to Aboriginal communities and prompted the development of a video resource, Vaccine Story, to raise awareness of maintaining the cold chain. This study describes...

Objectives Despite Helen O'Connell's landmark publications on the anatomical structure of the clitoris, this organ has remained absent from anatomy texts and illustrations, including course materials for health professionals. We aim to illustrate a variety of 3D models currently available for true anatomical representation of the clitoris as well a...

Objectives Despite Helen O'Connell's landmark publications on the anatomical structure of the clitoris, this organ has remained absent from anatomy texts and illustrations, including course materials for health professionals. We aim to illustrate a variety of 3D models currently available for true anatomical representation of the clitoris as well a...

The Conversation article highlights the challenges associated with transporting vaccines to remote Australia- https://theconversation.com/dont-leave-the-esky-in-the-sun-how-to-get-cold-vaccines-to-hot-remote-australia-164551.

Background: Abortion law reform does not necessarily translate into services, especially for those in regional areas. Although abortion has been legal in the Northern Territory (NT) since 1974, prior to 2017 legislation change, early medical abortions (EMAs) were effectively prohibited in primary care. In July 2017, Family Planning Welfare Associa...

We spoke with our partners and friends in Australia, Dr Suzanne Belton Co-Founder WHAT RU4 NT? and former Chairperson of Family Planning Association Northern Territory and Brigid Coombe who's a Co-convener of South Australia Abortion Coalition. Despite abortion being legally accessible abortion services are irregular across the country. Further, mo...

INTRODUCTIONRegardless of geographical location, safe and legal abortion is an essential reproductive health service. Accessing an abortion is problematic for women in rural areas. Although telemedicine is globally established as safe and effective for medical abortion in urban settings, there is a paucity of research exploring access to telemedici...

Background: Women face challenges when accessing abortion, including varied legislation and reduced access to services in rural and remote settings. There are limited clinical guidelines in Australia and little information regarding the patient journey, particularly the timeframe between referral to abortion procedure. Legislation reform in the No...

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in pregnancy in Australia and New Zealand (A&NZ). Design: Prospective population-based study. Setting: Hospital-based maternity units throughout A&NZ. Population: Pregnant women with RHD with a birth outcome of 20 weeks' gestation or more between January 2013 and Decemb...

A synopsis of a published article

Background: Mozambique has a high maternal mortality ratio, and postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a leading cause of maternal deaths. In 2015, the Mozambican Ministry of Health (MOH) commenced a program to distribute misoprostol at the community level in selected districts as a strategy to reduce PPH. This case study uses the ExpandNet/World Health O...

Despite national policies to support sexual rights, Timorese women are constrained when making sexual and reproductive health decisions. Contextual understanding of sexual decision making is vital for effective engagement by sexual and reproductive health service providers with communities. An intersectional reproductive justice approach broadens t...

This article describes the reproductive rights framework underpinning the campaign to reform the law on termination of pregnancy (TOP) in the period 2013 to 2017 in the Northern Territory of Australia (NT). We begin by outlining the pre-reformed legislation governing abortion in the NT. We then evaluate the reformed 2017 law using the typology esta...

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal deaths in Mozambique. In 2015, the Mozambican Ministry of Health launched the National Strategy for the Prevention of Post-Partum Haemorrhage at the Community Level. The strategy included the distribution of misoprostol to women in advance at antenatal care and via Traditional Birt...

Presentation of a retrospective audit of waiting times for patients undergoing termination of pregnancy in a public hospital in the Northern Territory. Randomised audit of waiting times before and after law reform which fundamentally changed access to early medical abortion.

High rates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Australia predominate in young Aboriginal people highlighting underlying racial and equity issues. This article focuses on the perceptions of the disease among young Aboriginal people living in remote Australia. Participant understanding was constrained by clinicians’ us...

Background: The global burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is two-to-four times higher in women, with a heightened risk in pregnancy. In Australia, RHD is found predominantly among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Methods: This paper reviews processes developed to identify pregnant Australian women with RHD during a 2-year popu...

Background: While global maternal deaths have decreased significantly, hundreds of thousands of women still die from pregnancy and birth complications. Interventions such as skilled birth attendants, emergency transportation to health facilities and birth preparedness have been successful at reducing such deaths, however barriers to seeking, reach...

Journalism -opinion The result of an Irish referendum held last weekend, which provided overwhelming support for liberalising the country’s abortion laws, has given Australians something to think about. The laws here vary from state to state, and political ambivalence gives licence to an ongoing situation of uncertain access, high costs and harass...

In 1973, the Northern Territory (NT) criminal law relating to abortion was reformed. The NT was one of only two Australian jurisdictions where the 1970s liberalisation of abortion was enabled by legislative reform. Unlike the 1969 South Australian reform, the NT bill was sponsored by a female, and feminist, parliamentarian, Dawn Lawrie, assisted by...

Australia has let a common gynaecological technique needed by one in three Australian women be out-sourced into private practice where women are disadvantaged by paying twice for health care and junior health professionals miss valuable training in women’s health. There are two policy documents produced by the Public Health Association of Australia...

Timor-Leste’s Maternal Mortality Ratio remains one of the highest in Asia. There is ample evidence that maternal deaths may be reduced substantially through the provision of good-quality modern methods of contraception. Many Timorese women wish to stop or delay having children. However, even when health services make contraception available, it doe...

Aboriginal children in northern Australia have high rates of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, which are chronic conditions because of the need for long-term treatment and monitoring. This article critically reviews the literature on transition to adult care for children with chronic conditions and considers applicability to the care of...

Maternal mortality remains a significant public health challenge for Timor-Leste. Although access to quality family planning measures may greatly reduce such deaths, consideration of indigenous perceptions, and how they influence reproductive health decision-making and behavior, is crucial if health services are to provide initiatives that are acce...

Objectives: To study rheumatic heart disease health literacy and its impact on pregnancy, and to identify how health services could more effectively meet the needs of pregnant women with rheumatic heart disease. Materials and methods: Researchers observed and interviewed a small number of Aboriginal women and their families during pregnancy, chi...

Objective: To explore young Aboriginal people's and clinicians' experiences of injection pain for the 10 years of penicillin injections children are prescribed to prevent rheumatic fever recurrences. Methods: Aboriginal children on the penicillin regimen and clinicians were purposively recruited from four remote sites in Australia. Semi-structur...

This article adopts a human rights lens to consider Australian law and practice regarding elective abortion. As such, it considers Australian laws within the context of the right to equality, right to privacy, right to health, and right to life. After setting out the human rights framework and noting the connected nature of many of the rights (and...

This article adopts a human rights lens to consider Australian law and practice regarding elective abortion. As such, it considers Australian laws within the context of the right to equality, right to privacy, right to health, and right to life. After setting out the human rights framework and noting the connected nature of many of the rights (and...

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal targets for 2030 will require persistent investment and creativity in improving access to quality health services, including skilled attendance at birth and access to emergency obstetric care. Community-based misoprostol has been extensively studied and recently endorsed by the WHO for the prevention of post-p...

Key Messages  Northern Territory termination of pregnancy data is imperfect and difficult to access therefore its usefulness to public health planners is limited.  In 2011 the TOP rate in the NT was 15.6 per 1000 non-Indigenous women and 10.4 per 1000 Indigenous women.  Numbers of terminations of pregnancy are underestimates as women travel int...

Gender disparities in testing rates for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have been identified as one potential factor sustaining high rates of STIs and repeat infections in the Northern Territory of Australia, especially in remote Indigenous communities. The study aimed to investigate the reasons for these disparities utilising a mixed-method...

Drs. Grossman and Goldstone's [1] commentary in Contraception discussed the prescribing requirements of mifepristone and lamented its slow uptake, comparing the United States (USA) with Australia. It suggested that Australia was ahead of the USA. We support and provide abortion services and legal research in Australia and use our local knowledge to...

Objective: To explore and describe methods of communication, education practices, perceived challenges and the potential role of nutritionists working in remote Australian Aboriginal communities in order to inform future public health efforts. Methods: Nutritionists who work or have worked in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia's Northern T...

This article examines the clinical and legal risks of early medical abortion. After providing an overview of the history of mifepristone in Australia, the evidence concerning the efficacy and safety of medical abortion is discussed. It is argued that the negligible medical risks associated with mifepristone do not justify the restrictive regulatory...

Maternity care in remote areas of the Australian Northern Territory is restricted to antenatal and postnatal care only, with women routinely evacuated to give birth in hospital. Using one remote Aboriginal community as a case study, our aim with this research was to document and explore the major changes to the provision of remote maternity care ov...

The causes of maternal death are well known, and are largely preventable if skilled health care is received promptly. Complex interactions between geographic and socio-cultural factors affect access to, and remoteness from, health care but research on this topic rarely integrates spatial and social sciences. In this study, modeling of travel time w...

The causes of maternal death are well known, and are largely preventable if skilled health care is received promptly. Complex interactions between geographic and socio-cultural factors affect access to, and remoteness from, health care but research on this topic rarely integrates spatial and social sciences. In this study, modeling of travel time w...

You may wish to sign a petition calling for law reform in the Northern Territory. Please go to this link https://www.change.org/p/northern-territory-government-review-the-medical-services-act-to-clarify-access-to-choice-for-territory-women-and-girls?after_sign_exp=member_sponsored_donation If you wish to read more from the Guadian Newspaper this...

Please use this link to download this article - http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/m3K6n9nRB6njKpvRa3MU/full Sexual health indicators for young remote-living Aboriginal women are the worst of all of Australian women. This study aimed to describe and explore young women's behaviour and knowledge in relation to sexual health, as well as to provide he...

Background Health services research is a well-articulated research methodology and can be a powerful vehicle to implement sustainable health service reform. This paper presents a summary of a five-year collaborative program between stakeholders and researchers that led to sustainable improvements in the maternity services for remote-dwelling Aborig...

Source: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2393/14/39 The delays in receiving adequate emergency maternal care described by Thaddeus and Maine twenty years ago are still occurring, as exemplified in this study of cases of maternal deaths in a subdistrict in rural eastern Indonesia. An ethnographic design was conducted, recruiting eleven families wh...

We describe our research on mapping maternal mortality situated in West Timor, where we combined geographic and anthropological techniques to describe families’ lived experiences. We conducted a pilot study in 2011 and report here on the research design, research methods and some of the challenges faced during the study. ‘What counts and who decide...

Background: An increased cardiac workload in pregnancy can unmask undiagnosed RHD and exacerbate clinical symptoms in women with RHD. Pregnant women with mechanical heart valves who require therapeutic anticoagulation throughout pregnancy; women with mitral or aortic stenosis; or with severe RHD, are at particular risk. There is a paucity of clinic...

Medical photography illustrates what people would prefer to keep private, is practiced when people are vulnerable, and has the power to freeze a moment in time. Given it is a sensitive area of health, lawful and ethical practice is paramount. This paper recognises and seeks to clarify the possibility of widespread clinician-taken medical photograph...

In this study, we attempted to explore the experiences and beliefs of Aboriginal families as they cared for their children in the first year of life. We collected family stories concerning child rearing, development, behavior, health, and well-being between each infant’s birth and first birthday. We found significant differences in parenting behavi...

Objective: to describe the system of health reporting by village midwives and two rural clinics in eastern Indonesia and solve some of the problems in this system through consultation. Design: participatory action research model where problems are identified by those most affected and solutions sought. Clinic staff were observed and interviewed...

The human ethics issues surrounding the conduct of health science research have been the subject of increasing debate among biomedical and social science researchers in recent years. Ethics procedures in health-science research are typically concerned with protecting anonymity and confidentiality, and are tailored to work that primarily uses quanti...

In 2010 Timor-Leste promulgated a law against domestic violence. AusAID awarded Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP) a human rights grant in 2010 with three main objectives. The first was to provide professional development to increase knowledge of health professionals and lawyers of the new Penal Code and Domestic Violence Law; the second t...

Abstract Researching abortion is challenging in that abortion is often stigmatised and illegal, however there is a lot of published credible research available that can be used from other countries. There is little research from Indonesia on the issue of abortion and researchers need to pick up the challenge to produce good quality quantitative an...

This study investigated the reasons for continued high rates of home births in rural Shanxi Province, northern China, despite a national programme designed to encourage hospital deliveries. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 home-birthing women in five rural counties and drew on hospital audit data, observations and interviews with loc...

to investigate the beliefs and practices of Aboriginal women who decline transfer to urban hospitals and remain in their remote community to give birth. an ethnographic approach was used which included: the collection of birth histories and narratives, observation and participation in the community for 24 months, field notes, training and employmen...

This study investigated the reasons for continued high rates of home births in rural Shanxi Province, northern China, despite a national programme designed to encourage hospital deliveries. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 home-birthing women in five rural counties and drew on hospital audit data, observations and interviews with loc...

The Council for Remote Area Nurses of Australia deliver the MEC course which is the only short-course on maternity emergencies offered to non-midwifery qualified remote area nurses and Aboriginal Health Workers. The aim of the course is to improve the maternity emergency skills and knowledge of health service providers who do not have midwifery qua...

The new Penal Code in 2009 was an opportunity for Timor-Leste to allow some legal grounds for abortion, which was highly restricted under Indonesian rule. Public debate was contentious before ratification of the new code, which allowed abortion to save a woman's life and health. A month later, 13 amendments to the code were passed, highly restricti...

We explore the position of midwifery in contemporary China, and draw on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi and Sichuan Provinces during 2005 and 2006, the available literature in English and to a lesser extent in Mandarin. We also explore the historical antecedents to the present-day professional status, practices and position within the health-care sys...

The new Penal Code in 2009 was an opportunity for Timor-Leste to allow some legal grounds for abortion, which was highly restricted under Indonesian rule. Public debate was contentious before ratification of the new code, which allowed abortion to save a woman’s life and health. A month later, 13 amendments to the code were passed, highly restricti...

In April and May 2006, internal conflict in Timor-Leste led to the displacement of approximately 150,000 people, around 15% of the population. The violence was most intense in Dili, the capital, where many residents were displaced into camps in the city or to the districts. Research utilising in-depth qualitative interviews, service statistics and...

In April and May 2006, internal conflict in Timor-Leste led to the displacement of approximately 150,000 people, around 15% of the population. The violence was most intense in Dili, the capital, where many residents were displaced into camps in the city or to the districts. Research utilising in-depth qualitative interviews, service statistics and...

This paper comments on the provision of birthing services in Sichuan and Shanxi Provinces in China within a policy context. The goal was to understand possible unintended and harmful health outcomes for women in the light of international evidence, to better inform practice and policy development. Data were collected from October 2005 to April 2007...

Forced migrants face particular reproductive health problems. Migrant Burmese women in Thailand often need to work to support themselves and their families, and mistimed and unwanted pregnancies are a common problem. They have limited access to culturally appropriate reproductive health services and no access to safe elective abortion. They are at...

Australian remote area nurses (RANs) are specialist advanced practice nurses. They work in unique, challenging and sometimes dangerous environments to provide a diverse range of healthcare services to remote and predominantly Aboriginal communities. There is an emerging skills gap in the remote nursing workforce as experienced and qualified RANs le...

We explore the position of midwifery in contemporary China, and draw on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi and Sichuan Provinces during 2005 and 2006, the available literature in English and to a lesser extent in Mandarin. We also explore the historical antecedents to the present-day professional status, practices and position within the health care sys...

Burmese women are forced to migrate to find work and security in Thailand due to the social, political, and economic disarray present in Burma. Unplanned pregnancies are common in this area, and one third of pregnancy loss is self-induced. Poverty, lack of employment rights, and domestic violence are important factors in deciding to terminate the p...

This paper comments on the provision of birthing services in Sichuan and Shanxi Provinces in China within a policy context. The goal was to understand possible unintended and harmful health outcomes for women in the light of international evidence, to better inform practice and policy development. Data were collected from October 2005 to April 2007...

Executive Summary Remote area nurses (RANs) work in unique, challenging, and at times, dangerous environment. For many RANs, their managers are located elsewhere geographically, an experience referred to in this report as distance management. Effective management under these circumstances is challenging and potentially has significant impact on jo...

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Fifteen women from eleven countries participated in the Virtual Communities project at ifu. After learning the theory behind the social and technical meanings of a virtual community the team developed their idea of a telehealth website for the use of health care staff in the South Pacific. A prototype of the website was realized by members of the g...

Executive Summary Unsafe abortion is the third largest cause of death during pregnancy globally and contributes to deaths and serious illness in Timor-Leste. This study is a situational analysis of the quality of treatment and preventative care available to women with unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions in Timor-Leste. It examines the testim...