New film showcases research to improve life chances of pre-term babies
31 January 2020
A short film which launched today, 31 January 2020, brings to life the work taking place in NHS hospitals across England to reduce brain injury in delivery of pre-term babies.
Being born too early (preterm) is the leading cause of cerebral palsy, with lifelong impact on children and families. Every year in the UK around 500 preterm babies develop cerebral palsy.
PReCePT (Prevention of Cerebral Palsy in Pre-term Labour) is about ensuring that mothers at risk of pre-term delivery are given magnesium sulfate, which protects their baby’s brain. The long-term ongoing impact will be a reduction of hundreds of cases of avoidable cerebral palsy.
It is an ongoing partnership of patients and parents, midwives, doctors, and quality improvement (QI) experts and researchers, who are collaborating to reduce cerebral palsy and improve the life chances of pre-term babies across England.
In 2018 PReCePT received Health Foundation funding to scale-up this work to 40 maternity units and investigate how best to support perinatal teams to adopt PReCePT. This trial, known as the PReCePT Study or PReCePT2, is being led by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) and the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).
To coincide with the World Health Organisation’s International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the PReCePT2 team has released a short film about the work taking place in NHS hospitals across England as part of the project. The film shows how the PReCePT Study has brought together different disciplines into perinatal teams to collaborate and offer seamless, joined up care.
Pippa Craggs, PReCePT2 Project Manager, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“In making this film, I’ve had the privilege of meeting mothers who’ve experienced pre-term birth and hearing from them about how PReCePT has directly benefitted their babies and families. This short film showcases the incredible work of our PReCePT champions to improve outcomes for preterm babies.”
Dr Karen Luyt, PReCePT2 Chief Investigator, Consultant Neonatologist, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, said:
“The film tells the story of the successful PReCePT2 collaboration of patients, midwives, doctors, researchers and implementation experts and how they are reducing avoidable cerebral palsy in babies across the nation.
“The legacy of the PReCePT2 collaboration is a national network of perinatal teams with advanced quality improvement capability and capacity, ready to efficiently implement new treatments to protect the preterm brain.”