Dr Lynne Roberts

Lynne Roberts is a retired midwife and health researcher whose professional career and personal experience have shaped her longstanding commitment to improving care for women and families affected by preeclampsia.

Lynne trained as a nurse and midwife at St George Hospital, Sydney, in the 1980s and worked there from 1989 until her retirement in 2025. Throughout her career, she worked across clinical maternity care, education and research, developing a particular passion for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia. She also held an academic appointment with the St George and Sutherland Clinical Campus, University of New South Wales.

In 1993, Lynne experienced preeclampsia and gave birth to her first son at 30 weeks’ gestation. Following a difficult and traumatic birth experience, she discovered Australian Action on Preeclampsia (AAPEC) and became a member shortly after the organisation was established. She has remained involved ever since, becoming President in 2022, a role she continues to hold.

Lynne’s lived experience, clinical expertise and desire to improve care for women and families led her into research. For approximately 20 years, she was an active member of the Obstetric Medicine Research Group at St George Hospital, managing and coordinating studies investigating hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and their short- and long-term health impacts. She completed her PhD at the University of Technology Sydney in 2019. Her thesis, Hypertension in pregnancy: Gaining insight into women’s mental health and birth experience 6–12 months postpartum, explored women’s experiences following hypertensive pregnancies.

As AAPEC President, Lynne is passionate about raising awareness, improving support for affected families and ensuring that lived experience informs research, education, health policy and clinical care. She believes that combining consumer perspectives with clinical expertise and research evidence is essential to improving outcomes for women and their babies.