BoPo Alliance – Researcher – Briony Hill
Briony Hill - Research
Briony is a mum to three boisterous boys and passionate about eliminating weight stigma for women across the reproductive years.
She is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, Senior Research Fellow, and the Deputy Head of the Health and Social Care Unit at Monash University. She is also a founding executive member of the Body Positive Birth Alliance.
Briony has a core program of research that centres on weight stigma before, during and after pregnancy. She applies an Ecological Systems Theory lens to her research to recognise the broader drivers and impacts of weight stigma that extend through the community, society, and government. As part of this work, Briony is one of only a handful of researchers globally, pursuing research to understand how we can eradicate weight stigma at all levels to reduce the burden and blame on women across the reproductive life phase. Read more in her bio.
The BoPo Alliance team has input from a range of consumers. We also have the Lived Experience Expert group developed and led by Bec. Briony also works with a consumer advisory group, established in April 2024, who provide guidance and advice for project development and proposals.
Projects
Guiding and delivering maternity healthcare that is free of weight stigma
Dr Briony Hill has been awarded a five-year NHMRC Investigator Grant, due to begin in 2026, to investigate and implement methods that address weight stigma from maternity care at multiple levels – from influencing care guidelines and policies to overhauling clinician interactions at routine antenatal and postnatal appointments.
The project will provide wrap-around optimisation of weight stigma-free maternity care across three pillars of work:
- Conduct a world-first prospective cohort study to develop novel understanding of how experiences of weight stigma in maternity care impact pregnancy and birth outcomes
- Develop a framework for guideline development to ensure future maternity care practice guidelines are not weight-stigmatising.
- Conduct an implementation study to evaluate how co-designed ‘Best Practice Principles’ can support clinicians to provide weight stigma-free maternity care.
The project will leverage the breadth of expertise and skills of the Body Positive Birth Alliance team.
Read more here and contact briony.hill@monash.edu for more information.
Weight stigma – the impact of restricting care access for larger-bodied women
Led by PhD Student, Kym Blyth, this project aims to investigate the barriers, facilitators, experiences, and consequences regarding safe, equitable maternity care for larger-bodied women. The project will explore the perspectives of women, healthcare providers, and hospital administrators.
Get involved: If you are interested in learning more about this project, please email kym.blyth@monash.edu or briony.hill@monash.edu
A socio-ecological approach to weight stigma in preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum
Led by Briony, this Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project aims to develop guidance for the translation of weight stigma evidence into preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum obesity-related policy. It focuses on the socio-ecological factors that perpetuate weight stigma in women across the reproductive life phase.
PhD candidates Haimanot Hailu and Michelle Dever are completing core elements of this program of work focusing on societal perspectives and women’s perspectives. The project is supported by Research Assistant Helia Khalesi.
Key outputs from this project include:
- Hailu H, Skouteris H, Incollingo Rodriguez AC, Hill B (2024). SWIPE: A conceptual, multi-perspective model for understanding and informing interventions for weight stigma in preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Health Psychology Review. Advance online publication 1st April 2024. Doi:10.1080/17437199.2024.2333801
- Hailu, H., Skouteris, H., Incollingo Rodriguez, A., Galvin, S., Hill, B. (2024). Drivers and facilitators of weight stigma among preconception, pregnant and postpartum women: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews. Advance online publication 12 Feb 2024; e13710.
- Hill, B., Bergmeier, H., Incollingo Rodriguez, A. C., Barlow, F. K., Chung, A., Ramachandran, D., Savaglio, M., Skouteris, H. (2021). Weight stigma and obesity-related policies: A systematic review of the state of the literature. Obesity Reviews, 22, 11, e13333. Doi: 10.1111/obr.13333
Get involved: If you are a stakeholder in women’s health policy from a government, NGO, clinical or other context and would like to get involved in the stakeholder aspect of this work, please email briony.hill@monash.edu
Briony was fortunate to be awarded an ARC DECRA Fellowship (2023-25) to complete this project. It aims to reframe our understanding of preconception lifestyle health in women from the current narrative of blaming women for their health to one that implicates broader societal perspectives to support women to optimise their diet and physical behaviours before pregnancy.
This project will generate new knowledge and conceptual and theoretical understanding. It will enable women and healthcare providers to be empowered to eliminate weight stigma in the preconception period.
PhD candidate Chloe Tran is working within this project to transcend individual blame and weight stigma in the preconception period by focusing on the healthcare setting.
Key outputs relating to this project include:
- Jayawickrama RS, Hill B, O'Connor M, Flint SW, Hemmingsson E, Lawrence BJ. Assessing explicit weight bias among Australian health care students: Suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA). Stigma and Health. Advance online publication 2023 Oct 1. doi: 10.1037/sah0000484.
- Kandel P, Lim S, Pirotta S, Skouteris H, Moran LJ, Hill B. Enablers and barriers to women's lifestyle behavior change during the preconception period: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews. 2021 Jul;22(7):e13235. doi: 10.1111/obr.13235.
- Hill B, Hall J, Skouteris H, Currie S. Defining preconception: exploring the concept of a preconception population. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2020 May 7;20(1):280. doi: 10.1186/s12884-020-02973-1.
- Yazdizadeh B, Walker R, Skouteris H, Olander EK, Hill B. Interventions improving health professionals' practice for addressing patients' weight management behaviours: systematic review of reviews. Health Promotion International. 2021 Mar 12;36(1):165-177. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaa039.
Get involved: If you are a healthcare professional (including GPs) and are interested in contributing to our research, please contact chloe.tran@monash.edu
Body Positive Birth: A pilot study and feasibility evaluation of photovoice to explore larger bodied women’s experiences of maternity care
This project was supported by a CRE HiPP Early and Mid-career Researcher Seed Grant. It is led by Briony in collaboration with BoPo Alliance colleagues Bec, Lauren, Leonie, and Rachael.
This project aimed to explore the lived experience of maternity care for larger bodied women. Our two key objectives were:
(1) To conduct a pilot photovoice study using virtual engagement methods to explore experiences of (a) larger bodied women and (b) weight-inclusive clinicians; and
(2) To evaluate the experience, feasibility, and acceptability of the photovoice data collection and analysis methods.
Full reports for this project are forthcoming.
Publications and outputs
- Khalesi H, Jenkinson B, Kearney L, Callaway L, Hill B. (2025) Understanding larger-bodied women’s experiences of maternity care: A pilot evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of an online photovoice approach, Midwifery, 148, 104534.
- Procedural guide: Conducting online photovoice research (2025)
This project was supported by seeding grant from The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre. The project is led by Briony, with BoPo Alliance colleagues Bec and Helen, joined by Jacqueline Boyle and Taniya Nagpal.
This project aims to co-design and evaluate resources to reduce weight stigma in antenatal care. We have been working closely with Eastern Health in Victoria and a team of committed consumers to achieve these goals.
Resources developed as part of this project include:
- A policy brief about addressing weight stigma in maternity care
- A podcast about respectful maternity care for larger bodied women
- A women's voices video
This work has been published in the peer reviewed journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
We have also presented some of the findings from this work:
- Hill, B., Hailu, H., Jenkinson, B., Rakic, S., Nagpal, T., Boyle, J., Sheehan, P., Skouteris, H. (2023, November 1). Co-designing resources with midwives and consumers to address weight stigma in antenatal care. Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Early Career Researcher Symposium 2023. Melbourne, Australia.
- Hill, B., Hailu, H., Jenkinson, B., Rakic, S., Nagpal, T., Boyle, J., Sheehan, P., Skouteris, H. (2023, October 18-20). Co-designing resources with midwives and consumers to address weight stigma in antenatal care. Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS) Annual Scientific Meeting 2023, Adelaide, Australia.
RADIANT: Weight-inclusive maternity care - Codesigning best practice principles with women, clinicians, and key stakeholdersLed by Bec and in collaboration with our BoPo Alliance, this project is funded by the Australian Health Research Alliance Women’s Health Research, Translation, and Impact Network Co-Production Grant Scheme, 2023-25.
This project has been developed with, for, and by larger bodied women, to:
- Describe larger bodied women’s experiences of weight-inclusive and weight-centric care during the preconception, pregnancy, birth, and postnatal periods (Phase 1).
- Co-design and produce Best Practice Principles to support maternity care providers to provide weight-inclusive pre-conception care, childbirth education and pregnancy, intrapartum and postnatal care (Phase 2).
Phase 1 of this project is underway, with the “RADIANT” website up and running.
Get involved: If you would like to learn more about the study, head to the website or contact radiantstudy@uq.edu.au
Exploring intersecting identities in pregnancy and experiences of weight stigma
Led by Dr Taniya Nagpal from the University of Alberta, Canada, Briony was involved in this exciting seeding grant that aimed to conceptualise weight stigma in pregnancy among Canadians with intersecting stigmatised identities such as being higher weight, from a minority racial/ethnic background, and women.
Key project output:
Deol, S., Ferdinands, A., Hill, B., Incollingo Rodriguez, A.C., Nutter, S., Ramos Salas. X., & Nagpal. T. Intersecting Expectations when Expecting: Pregnancy-Related Weight Stigma in Women of Colour. J Immigr Minor Health. 2024 Online ahead of print Jul 17. Doi: 10.1007/s10903-024-01619-0