Barbara Vernon

Barbara Vernon PhD is an Australian birth activist who lobbies government for improved provision of maternity services, particularly the expert use of midwives, and is currently the Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives.

Born in New South Wales she moved to Canberra in the mid 1970s. She did an Honours Degree in Political Science at the Australian National University and in 1997 was awarded a PhD in public policy from Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland.

Vernon worked in the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, before becoming the President of the Maternity Coalition, a position she held for two years. While President, she and Dr Tracy Reibel drafted the National Maternity Action Plan. In 2003 she was appointed Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives.

She has two children and lives in Canberra, Australia. She is married to David Vernon.

Publications

 * Midwifery in Australia - emerging from the shadows with Jenny Gamble in "Midwifery - freedom to practise?", ed Lindsay Reid, Churchill Livingston Elsevier, 2007, ISBN 978-0-443-10312-4