Did you know that the family of the late Dr Lynn Joseph, a prominent Maroubra GP and alumnus of the University of Sydney, has been funding the Baby1000 Program since its inception in 2015?
Led by Professor Adrienne Gordon and her team at The University of Sydney, the groundbreaking project incorporates early intervention for the mother during conception and for the baby’s first 1,000 days of life to ensure the healthiest outcome.
The estate of the late Dr Lynn Joseph, a Maroubra GP and an alumnus of The University of Sydney, has been funding the Baby1000 Program along with the doctor’s three brothers, Maurice, Neil and Douglas.
Dr Joseph practiced in Maroubra for 60 years. He was also a World War II Veteran of the Kokoda Track, who loved cricket and was regarded as a compassionate physician. His brothers were also graduates of medicine from The University of Sydney.
Prior to his retirement and death in 2013, Dr Joseph delivered generations of babies during a period when this was a common practice for GPs.
Helping to Ensure the Best Outcomes
“A healthy pregnancy is the best gift that we can give to an unborn baby,” Prof Gordon said. “We are all working to ensure the best lifelong health outcomes for the next generation. The earlier we can make these preventative interventions, the better,” Prof. Gordon said.
“The funding from the Joseph family has been amazing. We simply wouldn’t have been able to do our work without it,” she added.
Prof Gordon and her team are currently trialling how affordable, custom-designed pillows will help pregnant women sleep better on their side than on their backs since the latter has been associated with stillbirths.
The team has recruited 400 pregnant women to wear a device for monitoring for this trial.
The Baby1000 Program has also been conducting ongoing research on the links of maternal weight in the health of a newborn by acquiring the “BodPod” for mums and the “PeaPod” for babies.
The program has also been working with the NSW Health Statewide Biobank for storing samples of human tissue, blood, DNA and cells in temperature-controlled systems, which can be used and shared for other future researches.
Data from these samples are used for analysing maternal stress or maternal dietary and gut microbiome that helps the team draw significant findings in the gut health of the mothers and their babies.