Billie is a mother of five and practising midwife based in Wellington, New Zealand. Since first becoming a
Registered Midwife in 1998, Billie has worked in the community as a case-loading midwife attending births at home and in hospital and as a staff midwife in tertiary and secondary care hospitals in the Lower North Island. Billie worked as a midwife educator 10 years, including taking on the role as local co-ordinator for the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC) and leading local reviews of cases of poor perinatal outcome. It was this experience that led Billie to pursue research in maternal perception of fetal movements, first as part of a master’s degree and later in a PhD. Billie’s research interests centre around stillbirth prevention and include; fetal development, fetal growth, maternal obesity, and in particular fetal movements. She is currently completing a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland.