DESCRIPTION OF TOPIC:
It is universally acknowledged that health systems speak the language of data and numbers. It is time for the metrics of what matters to women and gender diverse people to be embedded in these numbers. Globally, the quality and safety of maternity care are defined using short-term indicators—morbidity, mortality, and access to essential care. There is a profound lack of data on women’s long-term health after birth. Once women leave maternity services, we have limited oversight on the health outcomes they experience, for how long, and how these impact their lives. Without reliable data on self-reported postpartum outcomes, midwives are limited in their ability to advocate for the systemic reforms urgently needed to deliver respectful, individualized postpartum care. To address this gap, a self-report measurement tool, such as via a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM), could provide essential information on the longer-term outcomes experienced by those who give birth. However, this tool must be developed with women and gender diverse people to ensure it reflects the real postpartum experience. My PhD research aims to explore which health outcomes should be included in a tool to assess health in the first postpartum year, and how this data should be collected in Australian health services. Gathering perspectives from women, health professionals, and policymakers, we aim to walk the line between women and health systems, to explore the outcomes that matter most and can be acted upon within health systems.

RELEVANCE TO MIDWIFERY:
Postpartum health data will provide critical evidence to support the need for one million more midwives. Midwives are experts in working within communities, where postpartum women live, work, and care. Understanding the long-term postpartum outcomes of women and gender diverse people is critical to amplify the need for comprehensive, rights-based postpartum care, and for midwives as the ideal professionals to provide this care. Data collection (including three-minute presentation competition)