Pregnant women with conditions like epilepsy, asthma, or depression are taking medications whose effects on their babies remain poorly understood. This research programme tackles five linked problems in pregnancy and postnatal care: how to better treat complications such as gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia; how pre-pregnancy medications affect mother and baby; how to tailor antenatal monitoring to individual risk; how to identify which women need follow-up for diabetes, heart disease, or depression after birth; and how having multiple chronic health conditions interacts with pregnancy outcomes. If successful, the work could shift antenatal and postnatal care from one-size-fits-all protocols to risk-stratified pathways. Clinicians might start women on safer medications before conception, catch complications earlier through molecular markers, and schedule postnatal checks for those most likely to develop long-term illness. The researchers will analyse large datasets combining health records, genetic information, and blood protein levels, then work with obstetricians, midwives, and patients to turn findings into practical changes in NHS maternity services.
View original technical description
The aim of our programme is to complete research that will improve the care and health of women and their babies as they go through pregnancy and into the postnatal period. The key issues that we will address are: 1) Improving the treatment of pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia; 2) Determining the effects of treatments that women might be on before they become pregnant, such as treatments for epilepsy, depression or asthma, on their pregnancy health and their babies health; 3) Improving antenatal care so that monitoring is tailored to differences between women in their likelihood of having a healthy pregnancy or experiencing a pregnancy complication; 4) Improving postnatal care by identifying which women should be assessed for health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and depression after pregnancy, and when these women should be seen and what assessments and treatments should be used; 5) Understanding the relationship between having two or more chronic health problems and pregnancy complications. To do this research we will use large datasets that include information on women’s health and behaviours before, during and after pregnancy as well as genetic and molecular information, such as blood protein levels. We will work with obstetricians, midwives, women and couples, and policy makers to make sure our research improves pregnancy and postnatal health.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know