Trent Newmeyer

Today is World AIDS Day, and a Brock professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies continues to do important research into the disease.

Trent Newmeyer researches various aspects of the health of HIV positive women during preconception, pregnancy and motherhood. His latest work will be a qualitative evaluation of the Positive Pregnancy program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Newmeyer will work with midwife Jay MacGillivray and obstetrician Dr. Mark Yudin, who founded the program in 2006. He will also work with Dr. Mona Loutfy of the Women’s College Research Institute. The team has been given a $25,000 research grant from the Ontario AIDS Bureau.

The Positive Pregnancy Program is dedicated to the care of HIV-positive pregnant women. It provides care from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social and psychological.

Through the program, women attending prenatal appointments are seen by the physician, midwife and a prenatal nurse and social worker. More than 100 women have gone through the program in the past five years.

Newmeyer’s other research includes a three-year, $900,000 study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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• Professor studying HIV and pregnancy