Rate My Professor Naomi Waldron

Naomi Waldron is an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago's Wellington campus. She is actively involved in the DOT study, a mixed-methods case study that examines the acceptability, accessibility, and impact of a midwife-delivered gestational weight management tool in Te Tai Tokerau, Northland, Aotearoa New Zealand. This research includes factors influencing its implementation and involves training 15-20 Lead Maternity Carer midwives to deliver the intervention to 150-200 pregnant women. The primary aims are to determine the proportions of women achieving recommended maternal gestational weight gain, assess the tool's acceptability to midwives and women including Māori and non-Māori participants, evaluate associated costs, and analyze pregnancy outcomes. Waldron collaborates with fellow Assistant Research Fellows Kimberley King from the University of Otago Dunedin campus and Monique Williams from the Wellington campus.

Naomi Waldron's professional background in midwifery informs her research contributions. She began her career in the Far North region of New Zealand as a student midwife in 2012, where she developed a commitment to remote rural midwifery practice. Growing up with six younger siblings, the last three of whom were born at home with her present, fostered her support for physiological birth and women's choices in childbirth. In 2013, she registered as a midwife and established her own LMC practice in Kaitaia, a remote location 2.5 hours by road from the nearest secondary unit under favorable conditions. There, she managed numerous challenging experiences and achieved a 97% vaginal birth rate. Currently, she serves as the Diabetes Specialist Midwife at Kaitaia Maternity, the local primary unit, allowing her to spend more time with her family while continuing clinical work alongside her research role at the University of Otago.