Our research programme
Published on Monday, 18 February 2019
We've been commissioned by the NIHR to conduct policy research from 2019-2024. The five themes of the PRU-MNHC research programme are already agreed with the Department of Health and Social Care and focus on supporting current maternity policy and practice. This includes the vision for maternity care which is set out in the Better Births report of the National Maternity Review, and the national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirth, newborn and maternal death, and brain injury in newborn babies, by 2025. The themes are:
- health before pregnancy, and optimising health throughout pregnancy
- understanding pregnancy loss, why babies become sick or die, and supporting bereaved parents
- women's experiences of care during pregnancy, labour and afterwards, and its impact on their health
- the care of newborn babies
- how health services are organised and deliver maternity and newborn care
Two to five projects under each theme have already been agreed for 2019 and 2020 with the Department of Health and Social Care. The views of women, fathers, partners, as well as the charities and organisations which represent and support them, help us to identify what is important to research in the health and care of mothers and newborns. You can read more about the projects on our website.
When projects are completed they are published as reports or as academic papers in peer-reviewed journals. We also aim to ensure that any messages from our research are shared in other ways, through social media and in summarised formats, so that anyone can understand them.
