Embedding the Eating Disorder Safe Principles in the Perinatal Period
Tracks
Tamborine Gallery
| Monday, August 31, 2026 |
| 2:15 PM - 2:35 PM |
Overview
Gabrielle Orr, National Eating Disorders Collaboration
Three Key Learnings
1. Strengthen capacity within the workforce to identify eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image distress during the perinatal period.
2. Understand how Eating Disorder Safe principles can guide prevention and harm minimisation across perinatal healthcare.
3. Apply practical strategies to reduce weight stigma and bias in perinatal care, supporting more inclusive and person-centred practice.
Speaker
Gabrielle Orr
Workforce Development Coordinator
National Eating Disorders Collaboration
Embedding the Eating Disorder Safe Principles in the Perinatal Period
Abstract
The perinatal period is a critical, yet under-recognised opportunity for eating disorder prevention, identification and early intervention. As many women engage with healthcare during pregnancy and early parenthood, it presents a key opportunity to identify previously undiagnosed eating disorders, disordered eating and body image distress.
This life stage is also high-risk for the emergence or re-emergence of eating disorders. Approximately 7.5% of pregnant people experience an eating disorder, while many more report body image distress and disordered eating behaviours. These experiences are often accompanied by guilt and shame, creating barriers to disclosure and help-seeking. Impacts extend beyond the individual, shaping feeding practices, parent–child relationships, and early developmental environments. Despite this, consistent, safe, and effective prevention and identification responses within perinatal care remain limited.
The Eating Disorder Safe (ED Safe) principles, developed under the National Eating Disorders Strategy 2023–2033, offer a practical, prevention-focused framework to address this gap. In 2025–2026, the National Eating Disorders Collaboration developed an Implementation Strategy to embed these principles across the First 2000 Days, informed by a national collaborative network, expert advisory group, and national family survey.
This presentation will translate the ED Safe principles into actionable strategies for perinatal settings, supporting the maternity workforce to recognise early warning signs, respond in ways that reduce shame and stigma, and create environments that promote maternal mental health and child wellbeing.
This life stage is also high-risk for the emergence or re-emergence of eating disorders. Approximately 7.5% of pregnant people experience an eating disorder, while many more report body image distress and disordered eating behaviours. These experiences are often accompanied by guilt and shame, creating barriers to disclosure and help-seeking. Impacts extend beyond the individual, shaping feeding practices, parent–child relationships, and early developmental environments. Despite this, consistent, safe, and effective prevention and identification responses within perinatal care remain limited.
The Eating Disorder Safe (ED Safe) principles, developed under the National Eating Disorders Strategy 2023–2033, offer a practical, prevention-focused framework to address this gap. In 2025–2026, the National Eating Disorders Collaboration developed an Implementation Strategy to embed these principles across the First 2000 Days, informed by a national collaborative network, expert advisory group, and national family survey.
This presentation will translate the ED Safe principles into actionable strategies for perinatal settings, supporting the maternity workforce to recognise early warning signs, respond in ways that reduce shame and stigma, and create environments that promote maternal mental health and child wellbeing.
Biography
Gabrielle Orr (she/her) is NEDC's Workforce Development Coordinator. Gabrielle is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and has worked across health promotion, peadiatric and women’s health, in both Australia and Aotearoa. She led the development of Australia’s first Size Inclusive Health Promotion guideline and has worked across a range of settings to promote size inclusive practice. Gabrielle is dedicated to supporting environments that enable positive relationships with food and body image for communities. She is strongly driven to reflect on and challenge the systems that perpetuate stigma and marginalisation, while upholding values of inclusion and self-determination in all aspects of her work.
Hilary (any pronouns) is NEDC’s Health Promotion Lead, with a keen interest in health equity, preventative health action and how social determinants of health can prevent eating disorders and related harms at both the individual and population level. She is motivated to drive eating disorder prevention and harm minimisation by her own lived experience as a neurodivergent person with a previous longstanding eating disorder, as well as being a parent. Hilary lead the development of the "Eating Disorder Safe" principles, and is now focused on implementing them across public policy, research, health service delivery, education and other settings.
