Queen's University Belfast

Academic Institute

Dr Laura McGowan

E074

Women’s health before pregnancy can help provide the foundation for successful pregnancies, and health before and during pregnancy is very important for both mums and babies, in the short and long-term. In Northern Ireland (NI), routine health and social care information is collected from all pregnant women and stored on an electronic records system called the Northern Ireland MATernity System (Northern Ireland Regional Maternity system (NIMATS)). Northern Ireland Regional Maternity system (NIMATS) collects information on women all over NI at each stage of pregnancy in NHS-funded maternity services. Detailed information is recorded during their first antenatal ‘booking’ appointment, when women are usually around 12 weeks pregnant. Information is recorded on their health shortly before and during pregnancy including information on their lifestyle (e.g., smoking, dietary habits etc.), any health conditions and medications they are receiving. Information is collected at every antenatal appointment during pregnancy and at the delivery of the baby, until mum and baby are discharged (i.e., after birth). There were approximately 23,000 registered births to NI residents (total births) in 2018. We plan to look at these electronic records in Northern Ireland Regional Maternity system (NIMATS) over a number of years (i.e., since each value has been recorded until now) to understand what type of healthy/unhealthy behaviours pregnant women report doing shortly before and/or during pregnancy; and to see how these change over time and change across groups (e.g., between those who plan/don’t plan to become pregnant). Research in England1 and the United States2 has helped outline key factors which we can look at in this routinely collected maternity information in NI to help understand women’s health. For example, more than half of women enter pregnancy with excess bodyweight and this can lead to poorer outcomes for mum and baby3. Looking for any links in this health and social care information will help us understand what makes safe and healthy pregnancies, improve practice and services and inform future studies.

The current project aims to benefit the public by providing an improved understanding of the links between behaviours which influence health and well-being in the preconception and early pregnancy period and longer-term outcomes for both mums and babies. This will ultimately improve patient care and healthcare services by better identifying at-risk groups and enabling effective targeting of interventions, thus improving outcomes for parents and their offspring. Effectively addressing the preconception stage can yield beneficial results across generations and at all levels. Secondary analyses are less costly than primary research. Therefore, in utilising existing data held by publicly funded databases, covering a large and representative population sample, the study makes good use of resources. The study findings will allow public health decision-makers and key stakeholders to better monitor the preconception status in NI, improve the documentation of routine collection of data (through interaction and feedback to those within the administrative side of Northern Ireland Regional Maternity system (NIMATS)), identify any key priority areas which are not currently suitably addressed in Northern Ireland Regional Maternity system (NIMATS), inform public health policy for the care of women and generate data to support much needed recommendations for improving women’s health in the preconception period.

31/03/2022

TRE