Champamunny Ven

Thesis title

Exploring the training needs of Cambodian midwives in relation to providing inclusive maternity care services for women with disabilities

Description of PhD Project

Women with disabilities are considered unrecognised health disparities population. Recent research of unmet needs and barriers in accessing maternity care of women with disabilities has emphasised disparities and discrimination against these women. The image of being disabled can be one of the determinants influencing on women’s maternity care. This may be due to the medical lens of healthcare professionals who view pregnancy and childbirth of women with disabilities to be more medically complicated. Lacking access to maternity care can have serious health complications for both mothers and newborns. At the same time women with disabilities were stereotype as asexual and society has underestimated their ability to conceive and become mothers due to their disability. This emphasises the needs to address the rights of women with disabilities to fully access to high quality of maternity care. In Cambodia, despite some progress of disability rights recognition and some improvement in quality of maternity care, women with disabilities still encountered stigma, discrimination and lacked access to high quality of maternity care. This PhD study aims to explore the training needs and requirements for Cambodian midwives to support women with disabilities in increasing accessibility to inclusive maternity care which mainly focus on the area of pregnancy, childbirth, and postnatal care.

Supervisors

• Dr Alexandra Devine
• Dr Manjula Marella
• Professor Cathy Vaughan

Biography

Munny is doing her PhD study under the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Her research topic is about exploring the training needs of Cambodian midwives in relation to providing inclusive maternity care services for women with disabilities. She holds a Master of Public Health from La Trobe university, Australia. She has many years experiences in nursing and midwifery in Cambodia. She is very passionate about helping people in the vulnerable group such as mothers, children, and persons with disabilities. She is one of the executive team members in Cambodian Midwife Association in Cambodia. Munny is married with two sons and a very supportive husband.

Funding/scholarships

• Australia Awards Scholarship