Colleen O'Leary - PhD student and maternal and child health researcher

“After I married, my husband encouraged me to follow my dream of studying at university and so I enrolled at UWA to study science,” says Colleen.
“I majored in biochemistry and physiology and after my degree I was lucky enough to work for Professor Pat Holt in asthma research for a few years, which I really enjoyed.”
Colleen then took a few years off to raise her children but when the youngest started school she was quickly back into research and commenced a Masters of Public Health degree at UWA whilst working part-time as a coordinator of clinical stroke trials.
“After I completed my Masters, I worked as the project officer for the National Expert Advisory Committee on Alcohol (NEACA) and gained wonderful experience in alcohol policy development and advocacy at the national level,” explains Colleen.  
“It was due to the work of NEACA that alcohol and pregnancy and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) was included on the national policy agenda in Australia, something I was proud to say I had contributed to.”
Following other roles in the Health Department including a project officer position in the Child and Youth Health Network, Colleen joined the Institute as a research associate in 2005 under the leadership of Professors Carol Bower and Fiona Stanley.
“During my initial year at the Institute, I was a member of the Alcohol in Pregnancy research team which followed on from the work I had previously performed at NEACA.  I still found it extremely interesting and when Carol Bower suggested I undertake a PhD on the subject, I didn’t think twice!” she says.
Colleen enrolled for her PhD through UWA in early 2006 and is hoping to complete it some time in 2009.  Her studies investigate the association between low to moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal and child outcomes using data from the Western Australian Survey of Health (known as the RASCALS study).
“So far, I have looked at levels of language delay in babies born to mums who consumed alcohol during their pregnancy,” explains Colleen.  
“Our data showed a three-fold increased risk of the likelihood of language delay in children whose mums drank at binge levels in late pregnancy.”
“Also, I have looked at the birth weights and numbers of pre-term babies and found that pre-term births increased with higher levels of prenatal alcohol exposure.  Even mothers who consumed alcohol early on but ceased before their second trimester had more pre-term births than those who abstained for their whole pregnancy.”
Colleen has authored six peer-reviewed journal articles since 2005 and in 2007 her efforts were rewarded when she received the inaugural Dr Louisa Alessandri Memorial Fund Prize for Best Scientific Publication.
“This was a nice surprise, and I felt proud to be recognised for the hard work put in by not only myself but all the co-authors of the paper,” says Colleen.
Colleen’s results on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure have already helped to guide government policy.  In early 2009, new national guidelines for alcohol consumption during pregnancy were released, stating that avoiding alcohol is the safest choice for women who want to ensure that their babies are not affected by alcohol before birth.
There is no doubt that Colleen feels she has found her niche in medical research and she plans to continue her current work at the Institute in the future.
“My immediate goal is to complete my PhD by the end of 2009 and then to find funding to continue my research into alcohol and pregnancy,” she says.
“I’m awaiting data from the Data Linkage Unit for a project to investigate the health outcomes for women who have an alcohol-related diagnosis recorded during pregnancy, and their children.”
Outside research, family plays an equally important part in Colleen’s life and she cites raising her children as her greatest achievement to date.  She also knows that they are very proud of what she is doing and support her 100 per cent along the way.
“My passion is to improve the lives of children who are exposed to parental alcohol misuse, to raise awareness in the community about the harms related to alcohol, and to change alcohol policies to support responsible drinking – this is what drives me to do what I do.”