RESILIENT - planning for maternity care after the COVID-19 pandemic

 

The RESILIENT study aims to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected maternity services in order to reduce inequalities in maternity care in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the ways in which many people could access and use maternity services with significant impact for healthcare professionals, pregnant women and their birth partners. This included changes being made to the way in which maternity services were used by women, such as virtual rather than in-person appointments and monitoring of blood pressure and glucose levels at home.

As maternity services try to adapt and develop after the pandemic, it is important to know whether these changes increased or decreased existing inequalities in maternity care so that future plans for services can be developed with a more complete picture of how best to reduce inequalities in maternity care for the greatest number of people.

The study aims to do this by analysing existing maternity data and carrying out interviews with women and families, healthcare professionals, health service leaders and policymakers to gather evidence about how maternity services have changed during COVID-19. A patient and public involvement advisory group is working with the research team throughout the study to help co-produce and share the reports of the findings to make sure that they have maximum impact on policy.

Find out more about what we do and our plans for the future in our research strategy.