Associate Professor Leo Leader

Qualifications:  MB ChB CapeT, MD UNSW, FRANZCOG, FRCOG, FCOG(SA), DA RCP&S Lond

Dr Leo Leader is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Women's and Children's Health. He is also a senior consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Royal Hospital for Women.

Dr Leader’s undergraduate training in medicine was at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He completed a Diploma in Anaesthesia (DA) through the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1974. His postgraduate training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology was both in London and at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.

After working as a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Groote Schuur Hospital, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UNSW at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney in 1981. He was awarded a Doctor of Medicine degree by the University of New South Wales in 1988 for his thesis entitled “Fetal Habituation”

He has served as an invited assessor for national medical research organisations in Australia, the United States and Hong Kong and is an invited reviewer for a number of leading international scientific journals.

He used to conduct a fertility clinic at the Royal Hospital for Women as well as a clinic in the gynaecology department providing specialist colposcopy services for women with abnormal Pap smears.  Dr Leader also used to conduct a high risk obstetric clinic.

Research Interests:

Assessment of fetal brain function during pregnancy using habituation to repeated stimulation. This is used to predict infant intellectual development. Research so far indicates that habituation is a sensitive predictor of development at 18mths and 3 years of age. The effects of prenatal maternal stress and anxiety on pregnancy and infant development and temperament. Vibroacoustic stimulation in labour as a predictor of fetal condition.

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:

• Fertility Society of Australia
• Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand
• International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine
• Australian Menopause Society

Specific Research Keywords:

Fetal behaviour. fetal vibroacoustic stimulation and fetal habituation.The effects of maternal stress and anxiety on fetal behaviour and infant outcome and development. Sex differences in fetal outcomes. Outcomes in couples undergoing donor insemination. Vascular remodelling in pregnancy