The LEAPP Guidelines Group is made up of 24 member organisations.
Together, we produce continually updated, evidence-based clinical guidelines for healthcare professionals working in pregnancy and postnatal care.
The Australian Living Evidence Consortium leads the group, in partnership with the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG).
Our work began in July 2023, and over the next five years we’ll be working together to update the current Pregnancy Guidelines and develop new Postnatal Guidelines – informed by the latest evidence from around the globe.
We have different panels, groups and committees that work on research and guideline development, review and approval. You can find details about the roles and membership of each group below.
Our approach and the language we use aims to be inclusive and accessible to everyone. We’re committed to listening to and reflecting the voices of women and transgender, non-binary and gender diverse communities. Many of our member organisations are currently exploring ways we can adopt language that’s inclusive, clinically accurate, non-discriminatory and sensitive to all. This is a work in progress that we’re following closely.
In the meantime, when working with individuals or telling their stories, we use their preferred pronouns and appropriate gendered language. In all other places, we use current terminology (for example, pregnant women, mothers and the maternal healthcare system) but apply our gender-inclusive principles.
At all times, we understand that there are multiple ways people identify themselves when using commonly referenced clinical or cultural linguistic conventions we do so knowing that some people in our community do not relate to these terms and we respect and accept this unconditionally.
The LEAPP Guidelines group brings together peak health organisations from across Australia that provide pregnancy and/or postnatal care. Membership is open to organisations that represent healthcare professionals and consumers.
Member organisations:
Partner organisations:
Funder:
The LEAPP guidelines are overseen by our national Steering Committee, which is made up of representatives from each of our member organisations.
The Steering Committee is governed by a consensus based decision-making process where all recommendations receive 100% consensus endorsement from all member organisations before publication.
Put simply, all our guideline recommendations must be approved by all of our member organisations.
Steering Committee members:
The national Guidelines Leadership Group (GLG) reviews all new and revised recommendations drafted by the Pregnancy Panel and Postnatal Panel.
GLG also prioritises new topics for evidence review and provides advice to the Steering Committee on emerging clinical and research issues that are relevant to the guidelines.
GLG members:
The LEAPP Pregnancy Panel is made of up multidisciplinary clinicians and researchers from around Australia.
Their focus is on:
Panel recommendations are reviewed by the Guideline Leadership Group and require 100% consensus endorsement from the LEAPP Steering Committee before being published for public consultation and NHMRC approval.
Pregnancy Panel members:
The LEAPP Postnatal Panel is made of up multidisciplinary clinicians and researchers from around Australia.
Their focus is on:
Panel recommendations are reviewed by the Guideline Leadership Group and require 100% consensus endorsement from the LEAPP Steering Committee before being published for public consultation and NHMRC approval.
LEAPP Postnatal Panel members:
Their focus is on:
The Consumer Panel reviews our draft recommendations before any other Panels. Our four Co-Chairs and Deputy Co-Chairs are also members of the Pregnancy Panel, Postnatal Panel and Guideline Leadership Group, to ensure a strong ‘patient voice’ throughout. The Steering Group includes an organisational consumer member, Maternity Consumer Network.
Our Consumer Panel members are:
View the Consumer Panel Terms of reference.
Find out more about the LEAPP Consumer Panel and their impact on the Australian Pregnancy & Postnatal Care Guidelines here.
If you would like to be notified about future opportunities to join the LEAPP Consumer Panel, please leave your details in the form below:
The LEAPP Policy Liaison Group considers the guidelines in the context of public policy, and facilitates implementation of the recommendations.
The group provides advice to the Steering Committee on emerging issues relating to:
The Policy Liaison Group is supported by our policy methods chair, Dr Samantha Chakraborty.
Policy Liaison Group responsibilities include contributing to online discussions and meetings, identifying current and upcoming policy initiatives related to LEAPP, and providing strategic policy advice – including nominating clinical questions and high priority topics to be addressed.
Everyone involved in LEAPP is required to submit a Declaration of Interest (DOI) form and outline any perceived, potential or actual conflicts of interest that may arise and/or impact on their decision-making.
As appropriate, the conflict may be managed by restriction of the involvement in relevant discussion or decision-making (with conflict noted in any relevant minutes/notes) or removal from participation in the ‘conflicted’ matter.
At the start of each team/committee/group/panel meeting the chairperson asks if any person present has an interest (i.e. a private interest or a duty to another organisation) in respect to any items on the agenda for discussion. Where determined appropriate by the chairperson, the individual will be asked to leave the meeting and not participate in discussion of any ‘conflicted’ matters. More information can be found in our COI Procedure.
The LEAPP Conflicts of Interest Committee (COIC) has four members with experience in the assessment and management of conflicts of interest. They are appointed by the Executive Team, but their deliberations and advice are independent of the LEAPP Guidelines group.
Members:
The Expert Advisory Group includes:
Expert Advisory Group members provide advice directly to the Evidence Review Team, to guide the work of the Evidence Review Team and Panels.
We are currently in the process of appointing members to this group, and will include more information about members and topics under consideration in the months ahead.
The LEAPP Evidence and Executive Teams are based at the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC) within the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM).
Executive & Project Teams
The Executive and Project Teams provides strategic direction to and operational oversight of the day-to-day activities of the Pregnancy and Postnatal Care Living Guidelines group.
ALEC Executive:
ALEC Project Team:
LEAPP Evidence Team:
The LEAPP Evidence Team is made up of experts who are experienced in defining questions for systematic review, literature searching, critical appraisal of clinical evidence from a range of study designs according to Cochrane/GRADE methods, and NHMRC methods and processes for clinical practice guideline development.
Please register for updates here