She was co-founder and director of the charity NZ Action on Pre-eclampsia, and introduced the GAP programme to monitor the growth of small babies.

In 2023 Cowan was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to midwifery, after a more than fifty year career contributing to the profession.

[1] However having recently met her husband-to-be, photographer John Cowan, she decided not to put her home life and family on hold for the necessary six years of training, and moved into midwifery instead.

Cowan had heard about the programme at a conference in America, and travelled to The Perinatal Institute in Birmingham to learn about how to apply it.

[1][5] In the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours Cowan was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to midwifery.