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A new study has explored how a public health prevention programme within NHS maternity services is helping to improve health outcomes for women across the North East and North Cumbria.

The work evaluated the effectiveness of the region’s Public Health Prevention in Maternity (PHPiM) Programme, looking specifically at services in three areas: mental health, healthy weight, and reproductive health.

The study was funded by the North East North Cumbria Integrated Care Board and delivered by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria. It was led by Dr Ryc Aquino and Professor Judith Rankin  from Newcastle University.

In this blog, the research team discuss the work and share the findings and recommendations.

How can we improve health outcomes for women accessing maternity care in the North East and North Cumbria?

Maternity care takes place over a specific period of time and is an opportunity to ensure the health of mothers and babies.

Our study aimed to evaluate the Public Health Prevention in Maternity (PHPiM) Programme, implemented in the North East and North Cumbria Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) from April 2021. It aims to improve maternity services for all women and families across five areas, specifically smoking tobacco in pregnancy, breastfeeding, mental health, reproductive health and healthy weight.

The programme created guidance and tools for improving maternity services delivered across the region. The programme has shown an impact in the areas of tobacco smoking and breastfeeding, but less is known about the impact on mental health, reproductive health and maternal healthy weight. Our evaluation explored the programme’s impact in these three areas.

Our research

To explore the impact of the PHPiM programme on health and care outcomes, we collected evidence such as materials (e.g., documents created as a result of the programme which help promote or support the programme), data (e.g., uptake of services produced by the programme), and by speaking to both parents and health professionals, who had either received or delivered care while the programme was running.

Our findings

• We found documents that support the programme’s aims, such as guidance for health professionals and materials for mothers and parents to use.
• Data showed more referrals and access to perinatal mental health services throughout the programme compared to before the programme was delivered.
• We found data which suggest an increase safer pregnancy spacing.
• Data showed that more women were having their weight checked at booking appointments and that gestational diabetes was being recorded more consistently.
• Health professionals commented that the programme was a good guide and helped them provide care for women across the three key areas (mental health, reproductive health, and healthy weight). They recognised that they sometimes had challenges meeting programme aims because of staff shortages.
• Parents mentioned that having the same midwife or health professional throughout their maternity care and being able to have their partner with them (e.g., during antenatal appointments) helped improve their experiences of care.
• Parents also recognised improvements in the delivery of care, e.g., services available to access and more discussions from health professionals about the three priority areas.

What’s next?

We developed our findings and recommendations into a report, which is now being used by the Local Maternity and Neonatal System to support their public health prevention in maternity programme in the future.

You can read more about the findings and access the report on our Evidence Hub.

We plan to publish an academic journal article on this research. We also aim to host a webinar this year to share the findings and open discussions with policymakers, health professionals, and parents.

To find out more or to register interest in the webinar, please contact: Dr Ryc Aquino at [email protected].

Find out more about the programme: Maternity public health prevention North East North Cumbria