Media

New team to lead maternal and newborn health programme

6 January 2011 

A new team based in Oxford will lead the national Maternal and Newborn Clinical Outcomes Review Programme from April 2011, the National Patient Safety Agency has announced.

The programme will investigate the deaths of women and their babies during or after childbirth, and cases where women and their offspring survive serious illness during pregnancy or after childbirth.

It will incorporate the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Newborn Health.

Almost one in every 100 births in the UK leads to a stillbirth or newborn death and up to 100 women die annually during or just after pregnancy.

Experts hope to prevent these illnesses and deaths, and improve maternal and neonatal care for all mothers and babies.

The Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Newborn Health were previously carried out by the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE). The Confidential Enquiries have led to major improvements in the health and care of women and their babies but medical experts believe instances of poor care still exist and further improvements can still be made.

The new programme, called MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies - Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK), will be jointly run by the universities of Oxford, Leicester, Liverpool and Birmingham, Imperial College London, Sands - the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, and an Oxford GP.

It will be based at Oxford University’s National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) and will build on existing research projects, including the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) led by Dr Marian Knight at the NPEU, and the Infant Mortality and Morbidity Studies (TIMMS) led by Professors Elizabeth Draper and David Field at the University of Leicester. Dr Jenny Kurinczuk at the NPEU will lead the new team.

Dr Kurinczuk said: ‘It is a privilege to be taking forward this work into a new era. The work of CMACE has contributed to significant improvements in the health and care of pregnant women and their babies, yet there are still improvements in health and care to be made. This new programme will help ensure a safe and happy experience for parents in the future.

‘We are delighted that we will be working closely with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Institute for Child Health, which have jointly been awarded the new Child Health Clinical Outcomes Review Programme.  Linking the methods and findings from the two new programmes will have important benefits for the health of children of all ages.’

Dr Tony Falconer President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said: ‘Confidential enquiries help doctors spot emerging trends, identify problems and put into place mechanisms to improve care. These enquiries, which started in the UK, are used as the gold standard around the world to demonstrate how well a country is doing in terms of its overall health.

‘NPEU has an outstanding track record in conducting clinical research, surveillance and audit. We look forward to working with NPEU on future confidential enquiries and audit into maternal and infant health and support all efforts to ensure that these reports continue to be collated.’

Louise Silverton, Deputy General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said: ‘The work of MBRRACE-UK will play a crucial role in identifying areas in maternity care where attention and improvement is needed. This is important for midwives because it helps to inform and improve their practice but most importantly, it is important for women and their babies who as a result, will receive safer and better care.’

Prof Terence Stephenson, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said: ‘This is an excellent new team and we look forward, on behalf of paediatricians in the UK, to working together to develop both the newborn and child health clinical review programmes.’

Janet Scott, Research Manager at Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity, said: ‘Every day in the UK 17 families are devastated by the death of their baby either shortly before or soon after they are born. We believe some of these deaths are potentially avoidable so we are extremely excited to be involved in this new initiative and to be able to bring the perspective of parents to understanding why some babies die.’

For more details contact Dr Jenny Kurinczuk or Dr Marian Knight at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit: jenny.kurinczuk@npeu.ox.ac.uk   / marian.knight@npeu.ox.ac.uk  / 01865 289700

Notes for editors

  • For more information on MBRRACE-UK visit www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk
  • Members of the programme team:
  • National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford University: Dr Jenny Kurinczuk, Dr Marian Knight, Prof Peter Brocklehurst, Dr Ron Gray and Dr Maggie Redshaw
  • The Infant Mortality and Morbidity Studies (TIMMS) Team, University of Leicester: Prof Elizabeth Draper, Prof David Field, Dr Lucy Smith, Dr Bradley Manktelow
  • Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity: Charlotte Bevan, Janet Scott
  • The Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, Imperial College London: Prof Neena Modi
  • University of Liverpool: Prof James Neilson
  • University of Birmingham: Dr Sara Kenyon
  • General Practitioner, Oxford: Dr Judy Shakespeare
  • The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a research unit at Oxford University established in 1978 by the Department of Health. The unit has expanded considerably in recent years and now has well over 80 staff including epidemiologists, obstetricians, midwives, nurses, paediatricians, social scientists, and information specialists. The mission of the NPEU is to produce high quality research evidence to improve the care provided to women and their families during pregnancy, childbirth, the newborn period and early childhood as well as promoting the effective use of resources by perinatal health services. Details at www.npeu.ox.ac.uk  
  • The TIMMS team at the University of Leicester was established in the late 1990’s. TIMMS run an internationally renowned programme of research investigating the causes, consequences and management of specific aspects of the morbidity and mortality of the fetus, infant and child. Research findings are used to influence policy, education and clinical practice in reproductive, perinatal and paediatric medicine. Details at www.le.ac.uk/departments/health-sciences/research/ships/timms/projects
  • Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, was established by bereaved parents in 1978.  It is a national organisation, with over 100 regional support groups across the UK. Sands’ core aims are: to support anyone affected by the death of a baby; to work in partnership with health professionals to improve the quality of care offered to bereaved families; and to promote research and changes in practice that could help to reduce the loss of babies’ lives. Details at www.uk-sands.org/
  • UKOSS is a joint research initiative between the NPEU and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives, the Obstetric Anaesthetists Association, the National Childbirth Trust, the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians, and the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health, and is supported by the Department of Health. It is a UK-wide obstetric surveillance system to describe the epidemiology of a variety of uncommon disorders of pregnancy. The aim is to use this system to lessen the burden on reporting clinicians of multiple requests for information from different sources. Details at www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/ukoss