Community intervention to increase early uptake of antenatal care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pragmatic cluster population-level randomised controlled trial of a community-level intervention to increase early uptake of antenatal care (REACH Pregnancy Programme, Work Package 1)
IRAS ID
167821
Contact name
Angela Harden
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
This study will look at the effectiveness of a community intervention programme to support women to have their first antenatal appointment with maternity services before the 13th week of pregnancy, in line with national guidelines. The study is part of a wider NIHR-funded programme of research that seeks to improve access to and experience of antenatal care for pregnant women living in socially deprived and ethnically diverse areas- the REACH Pregnancy Programme.
For this study we will choose 20 electoral wards in North and East London where women are more likely to delay the start of antenatal care. We will randomly select 10 of these wards as the ones where the community programme will take place. The programme will include: (i) training a group of peer volunteers to promote antenatal care through local networks of women; (ii) development and distribution of campaign materials; and (iii) community events to promote key messages. We will work together with local communities to co-design and develop the content of the programme.
We will analyse hospital data from local maternity services to see whether pregnant women living in the programme wards begin their antenatal care earlier, and see greater benefits for both themselves and their babies, than those living in the other 10 wards. We will look at whether the programme provides good value for money. We will also interview local people who help design and deliver the programme, in order to identify issues that supported or hindered its effectiveness within their communities. Finally, we will survey some pregnant women living in the study wards to see whether or not the programme influenced their decision about when to begin antenatal care.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0106
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion