Improving our health by translating research evidence into local NHS practice

Theme 5

Re-designed maternity support services for multi-ethnic disadvantage groups

Theme Lead Professor Christine MacArthur, Professor of Maternal and Child Epidemiology, University of Birmingham

Pregnancy and child outcomes are worse for severely deprived and recent immigrant families and the educational and social outcomes for the children are very much worse. Enhanced support services in pregnancy can be effective in improving maternal psychosocial outcomes: and maternal psychological wellbeing has been shown to be associated with improved cognitive development of the child. This is a plausible explanation for the finding in the US that social interventions in the postpartum period benefit specific groups of women, children and families. The Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT will tackle poor pregnancy and postpartum outcomes for mother and child through a programme of systematic social needs assessment and enhanced support, which is based on a case-management model and is home-focused. The intervention is targeted at the most disadvantaged end of the social spectrum. The programme will be evaluated by means of a randomised controlled trial. More