Facemums 2018 v1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Facemums 2018: Bringing relational continuity to the home through social media.

• IRAS ID

  257015

• Contact name

  Rose McCarthy

• Contact email

  r.mccarthy@salford.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Salford

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 6 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  In 2015-2018 the study (REC ID 15/WS/0028) brought pregnant women and midwives together online, in secret Facebook groups for information sharing and support.
  The key findings from the study showed that women will engage with midwives and other pregnant women through social media and doing so improves their pregnancy experience. Information and support needs can be met through midwife moderated groups and furthermore, midwifery relational continuity can be achieved (McCarthy et al. 2017). Given that relational continuity is fundamental for high quality maternity care and a goal for all maternity service providers, this follow on study aims to create multiple midwife moderated social network groups, using the model developed in project REC ID 15/WS/0028, to see if the findings relating to relational continuity are scalable.

  Up to 100 midwife moderated groups will be created from multiple NHS sites across 3 Sustainability Transformation Parnerships (STPs). The objectives are to:
  
  • examine the development of midwife/mother relational continuity at scale, using Facebook;

  • explore the information and support shared amongst these groups in order to generate a deeper understanding of the needs of pregnant women and new mothers;

  • examine the contribution of professionally moderating a Facebook group on midwives’ continuing professional development;

  • explore the experiences of midwives engaging with social media in a professional context.

  The study takes place over 18 months. During 35 weeks qualitative and quantitative data will be collected from the secret Facebook group interactions. A survey evaluating relational continuity will also be administered at 10 week intervals.

• REC name

  North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  19/NW/0011

• Date of REC Opinion

  28 Jan 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion