The Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research at the School of Health and Medical Sciences, City St George's, University of London welcome Octavia Wiseman to discuss the implementation of group antenatal care in England - Lessons from the Pregnancy Circles trial and integrated process evaluation, as part of the SHMS research seminar series.
Abstract
Minoritised groups and others report poor experiences and outcomes of antenatal care. The Pregnancy Circles trial set out to test whether group antenatal care could improve outcomes and experiences compared to traditional one-to-one care in ethnically and socio-economically diverse areas. We will report on the integrated process evaluation which explored factors influencing implementation in 19 maternity services across 14 NHS Trusts.
We explored the context and process of implementing Pregnancy Circles using a case study design including participant interviews in both arms of the study, interviews with midwives and stakeholders and observations of group and traditional antenatal appointments. Data were coded thematically and mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to synthesize influences on implementation at different levels.
We will present the results of our evaluation study, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of implementing this novel model of care at outer, inner and individual levels within the NHS context as well as exploring the impact of the innovation design and implementation processes.
Authors
Octavia Wiseman, Research Fellow and Christine McCourt, Professor of Maternal and Child Health at City St George's, University of London on behalf of the REACH Pregnancy Circles team.
Preprint
Wiseman O, McCourt C, Wiggins M et al. What influences the implementation of group antenatal care in English NHS maternity settings? Findings from a qualitative process evaluation integrated within a randomised controlled trial of Pregnancy Circles, 23 April 2025, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6396617/v1
Contact Details
Dr Cassandra Yuill
Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research
cassandra.yuill.2@city.ac.uk
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