Dr Nisha Brown, PhD, is a neonatal and paediatric occupational therapist with a special interest in newborn behaviour and infant development. Nisha graduated with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy in 1997 and has worked in paediatrics since 1999, completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne (Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology) in 2006. Nisha is committed to helping parents to better understand, support and optimise, their baby’s behaviour and development, right from birth.

Nisha’s longstanding passion for babies led to her PhD and post-doctoral studies involving detailed examinations of how infants’ (preterm and full-term) behaviours relate to brain development, medical and social factors, and, importantly, long-term development. These studies, based at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, also took her to Boston (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School) for specialist training in the developmental assessment of babies. Nisha has presented her research findings nationally and internationally and published in the top international paediatric medical journals.

Nisha has recently started consulting at Offspring Child Health Specialists. She also holds a public position at the Royal Women’s Hospital in the neonatal intensive and special care nurseries and is an honorary fellow at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and at the University of Melbourne Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Nisha seeks to bridge the gap between research findings and clinical practice. This has particular importance for the information and advice that is given to parents. Nisha is passionate about community education and enjoys speaking at numerous health professional forums.  Nisha has designed a series of workshops for “everyday” parents, called, (i) ‘Baby Ready’ (antenatal), (ii) ‘Baby Steady’ (birth–3 months), and (iii) ‘Baby Go!’ (7–10 months). These workshops are held regularly and draw on her experience as an occupational therapist in the neonatal nurseries (NICU), as a researcher, as a therapist in the community, and as a mum of three children.