Dr Christine Andrews
Dr Christine Andrews is a nationally recognised perinatal implementation scientist. She is Group Lead of the Perinatal Implementation, Equity and Research for Safer Care (PIERS) group at Mater Research, Senior Research Fellow within the NHMRC Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence (Stillbirth CRE), and a Mater Research Career Track Fellow.
Dr Andrews' research focuses on turning evidence into safer and more equitable perinatal care. Through implementation science, consumer partnership, equity-led co-design and health services research, she works to close the gap between evidence and practice and improve outcomes for families. Her research spans stillbirth prevention, safer pregnancy care, equitable maternity services, and health-system improvement, with a particular focus on populations that experience barriers to care.
As a key leader of the national Safer Baby Bundle initiative, she has driven the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based safer pregnancy care across Australian maternity services. Her leadership has supported widespread practice change, contributing to a 21% reduction in stillbirths across 19 Victorian maternity services. She also contributed to the development and evaluation of the Safer Baby Bundle eLearning program, which has equipped more than 18,000 clinicians nationally with knowledge and skills, strengthening the maternity workforce’s capacity to improve outcomes for babies and families. Her research has informed policy, clinical practice, implementation strategies, quality improvement initiatives and public awareness campaigns.
Dr Andrews leads two flagship MRFF-funded research programs. Safer BabySEEK is a consumer-led program examining how pregnant people recognise concerns, seek help and access care, with a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, young parents and those in early pregnancy. The SPARK (Safer Perinatal Care for Autistic Expectant Parents) program employs co-design, consumer partnership and implementation science to improve maternity care experiences, access and outcomes for Autistic expectant parents.
As a passionate advocate for consumer partnership, Dr Andrews has led initiatives, including Project Engage, that enable families to directly shape research priorities, design and translation. Her work is driven by a commitment to ensuring that evidence-based care reaches every family who can benefit from it.
“Better pregnancy outcomes depend not only on what we know, but on how effectively we put that knowledge into practice."
