GOLD Speakers

Australia

Carolyn Ruth Hastie, RN, RM, Cert Sexual and Reproductive Health, Dip Teach, Grad Dip PHC, MPhil

  • Country: Australia
Biography:

Carolyn Hastie is a mother and grandmother. She is senior lecturer of midwifery at Southern Cross University and has been at the leading edge of midwifery practice and education for four decades. Her passion is improving care for childbearing women, partners and babies; her focus is on the neurophysiological intersection of growth, development and relationships for everyone involved. Among Carolyn’s achievements are, with her colleague, Professor Maralyn Foureur: gaining visiting rights to public hospitals in 1984, a first for Australia and starting the first Australian midwives’ clinic in 1987. Carolyn commissioned and managed a quality award winning stand-alone midwifery service which included the option to birth at home. She has researched and written extensively on midwifery related subjects, including horizontal violence and bullying in midwifery after a young new graduate midwife she met at a workshop committed suicide in response to workplace bullying in 1996. Jodie’s suicide led Carolyn to seek ways to teach midwifery students and new graduate midwives the necessary skills to manage themselves and their relationships with colleagues in the workplace.