The Sparks project at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, aims to develop a much more accurate screening test for pre-eclampsia, a condition that can cause a variety of pregnancy complications including premature birth or even death of the mother.

If this project is successful, it will enhance care for women during pregnancy and their unborn babies. Catherine Chmiel, a Research Midwife working on the project, explains why she is so passionate about this work.

“Through my work as a midwife, I often come into close contact with pregnant women and babies affected by pre-eclampsia and this encouraged me to get involved in research that could improve the care for women on a larger scale. I didn’t want to just make a difference to women in my care – I wanted that to extend that to pregnant women and babies around the world.

“I didn’t want to just make a difference to women in my care – I wanted that to extend that to pregnant women and babies around the world”

Hopefully this project will result in less women and babies dying from the effects of pre-eclampsia – at present it’s one of the most common causes of maternal death in the UK. I also hope that we’ll reduce the number of complications associated with pre-eclampsia, such as pre-term delivery; small birth-weight babies; and long-term health complications, like raised blood pressure and diabetes. All of these can have serious long term implications for both mother and baby.

A test for every pregnant woman

The main goal of the project is to produce a screening test that will, hopefully, one day be accessible to every pregnant woman. The test will classify their risk of pre-eclampsia by grouping them into a high or low-risk category. The idea would be to improve antenatal care for those at high risk of pre-eclampsia, by means of a specialist antenatal clinic run by doctors and midwives who are experts in the condition. Hopefully prompt intervention and treatment will lead to better results for both mother and baby. 

To conduct this kind of research over a long period of time, you need to be focused on improving the lives of many pregnant women and babies in the future. For me personally, seeing first-hand the effects of pre-eclampsia as a clinical midwife is enough to keep me dedicated to making this project a success.

Future mums and babies

This is about the women and the babies. It is because of them that I wanted to be heavily involved in this research. I became a midwife to make a difference and, by running this project from the front line in the antenatal clinics at St Mary’s Hospital, I feel that I am working towards fulfilling that goal.”