GOLD Speakers
Leonie Rastas, RN.RM.FACN
- Country: Australia
Biography:
Leonie graduated as a Nurse in 1977, a Midwife in 1980 and a Post Grad Cert in
Higher education in 2012. In 2018 Leonie founded ‘Caesarcare’ offering resources and a self published eBook titled ‘Woman-Centred Caesarean Care’ for women having surgical births.
Leonie also has a special interest in helping women who experience neonatal loss and in 2005, she founded an health promotion charity Pastoral Health Care Network Australia,(PHNA) to assist families living with grief and loss. Her initiative to gift adult comfort shawls to parents after still birth has since been adopted by the Nations SIDS foundation.
Currently Leonie serves Vice president of PHNA and as the Australian College of Midwives Liaison officer at Australian Catholic University.
In 2010 Leonie was recognised for her service to Nursing and duly admitted as a Fellow of
the Royal College of Nursing Australia.
In March 2019 Leonie’s wound splint invention the SAC (surgical after care )splint designed to help women support their c-section wounds was shortlisted for the Australian College of Nursing innovation award during Australia’s National Healthcare Week .Leonie lives in Brisbane Australia and teaches online classes for women preparing for and recovering from C-section births.