Bumps and Babies Longitudinal Study 'BaBBLeS'
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Impact of Best Beginnings' 'Baby Buddy' Phone App: a Cohort Design
IRAS ID
167156
Contact name
Toity Deave
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the West of England, Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 28 days
Research summary
The Baby Buddy App is a free smart phone app providing interactive information to expectant and new mothers. It is designed to help parents look after their own physical and mental health during pregnancy and early parenthood and support them with caring for the physical and emotional health of their child.
The app was created by the child health and wellbeing charity, ‘Best Beginnings’, with representatives from professional groups for general practitioners, midwives, health visitors, speech and language therapists and others.
Its development was funded by the Big Lottery Fund, the Tedworth Charitable Trust and the Guys and St Thomas’ Charity.
The BaBBLeS research study, commissioned by Best Beginnings, will be conducted by an independent experienced research team from four UK universities: Universities of the West of England, Newcastle, Hertfordshire, Coventry and the Kings Health Partners in partnership with maternity services in Coventry, Bradford and Lewisham.
There are two strands to the study: Strand 1 will explore mothers’ app use to discover any benefits they feel the app provides about their knowledge, parenting, health, and relationships or communication with their child, friends, family members and health professionals. Health Professionals’ views of the app will also be sought. Strand 2 will explore mother’s and health professionals’ views of the films in the app covering the emotional aspects of pregnancy and early parenthood. Information will be collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups with mothers and health professionals alongside detailed quantitative analysis of ‘in app’ data.
The results will be reported and shared with Best Beginnings, the two funders, staff and women who took part, health professionals across the UK who support women in pregnancy and early parenthood, the developers of the app and across social media sites so that the results are widely available to families and professionals alike.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0029
Date of REC Opinion
8 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion