Rate My Professor Laura Gabriel

Dr. Laura Gabriel serves as a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery and course coordinator for the Bachelor of Midwifery program within the School of Health at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She holds a PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast, where her doctoral research utilized a phenomenographic approach to investigate how Australian midwives conceptualise intrapartum risk, culminating in the development of an Outcome Space framework that delineates the hierarchical relationships between various phenomena. Additionally, she earned a Diploma of Higher Education in Midwifery from the University of Nottingham. With over 25 years of diverse national and international midwifery practice, Dr. Gabriel is committed to enhancing midwifery practice and improving outcomes for childbearing women and their families.

Dr. Gabriel's research specializations include the impact of mentorship on midwifery students participating in continuity of care models, the role of midwives in addressing postnatal sexual health, and strategies to promote respectful maternity care in low-resource settings. She is experienced in designing and delivering blended learning education, and has recently integrated Generative Artificial Intelligence into midwifery curricula to enhance students' critical thinking skills. In acknowledgment of her outstanding contributions to higher education, she was awarded Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) status in 2023. Her scholarly output encompasses 16 publications, with a total of 45 citations. Key works include her PhD thesis, How do Australian Midwives conceptualise intrapartum risk? (University of the Sunshine Coast); "I didn't feel like I could trust her and that felt really risky": a phenomenographic exploration of how Australian Midwives describe intrapartum risk (2023); Birthing the placenta: women's decisions and experiences (2019, Women and Birth); Impact of disrespectful maternity care on childbirth complications: a multicentre cross-sectional study in Ethiopia (2024); and Toward consensus: a Delphi study on the core principles and indicators of respectful maternity care (2025). These contributions advance understanding in midwifery risk perception, student mentorship, and global maternity care quality.