Pregnancy complications occur in more than 90,000 of the 300,000 Australian births each year, and these problems also signal future health issues for mothers and their children.
Professor Claire Roberts (BA ’85), an internationally recognised authority in placenta research and leader of the Pregnancy Health and Beyond Laboratory at Flinders University, is working to identify genetic and modifiable risk factors that link pregnancy complications with future chronic diseases. She is determined to find ways to alleviate future risk.
The new five-year research project that she leads – Pregnancy: Window to Health Futures – has received more than $3 million through an NHMRC Investigator Grant. It will build on her discoveries to date in this field. She will develop new understanding about family health across generations, which will reinforce the importance of investing in maternal health.
“Health during pregnancy foreshadows a woman’s future health – and also that of her children,” says Professor Roberts.
“Our research into pregnancy health provides an opportunity to identify women who are at risk – often before they have even realised they have a problem with things such as high blood glucose or high blood pressure. It will empower women and clinicians with information and tools to act early to prevent future chronic disease.”
This research will study maternal and child health from conception, focusing on genetic, epigenetic and modifiable risk factors common to pregnancy complications, and later cardiometabolic diseases. This will generate new knowledge on how health and chronic disease is transmitted in families across generations.
The new NHMRC Investigator grant will enable Professor Roberts to steer several interlinked projects with pregnant women. The first is a study involving more than 1000 women, conducted in partnership with Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, that focuses on impacts of different levels of folic acid consumption, in the diet and in supplements, on pregnancy complications.
“Young women are taking all sorts of supplements during their pregnancy. We have found that taking too much folic acid via supplements and in fortified foods such as bread and breakfast cereals can lead to gestational diabetes and other problems for some women. Of course, too little folate also causes problems.”
The second project involves an expansion of clinics for women who have had pregnancy complications,
currently offered at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Elizabeth Vale. With additional funding, these will be introduced to Flinders Medical Centre and Noarlunga Hospital. Women are assessed for metabolic syndrome, which is an important predictor of heart disease and diabetes, and twice given counselling by a nurse practitioner skilled in cardio-metabolic health in young women – at 6 and 12 months after their baby is born.
“By empowering mothers to take control of their own health, the health of their children and partners will also improve. The prevention is better than cure message is amplified through families, friends and engaging with communities.”
A third area of attention for the NHMRC Investigator project will be to establish an intergenerational study of grandparents, parents and children, with pregnant women at the centre.
Partnering with clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists, non government organisations, local communities and families, it will create new knowledge, identify molecular targets and generate novel interventions, co-designed with consumers, to improve pregnancy and intergenerational health across the life course.
“The information will be powerful from genetics and epigenetics perspectives, but it will also provide crucial insights into how diet habits, physical activity, health and disease run in families. These will inform data simulations that can make accurate predictions about the health of future generations and point to ways to prevent disease.”
This valuable resource, which will be brought together by consumers, community groups and a large and diverse team of clinical and biomedical experts, presents a huge opportunity to generate a living research platform that can support future research and health policy. Importantly, it will establish a digital platform that can be used not only to collect data, but also to regularly give information back to participating families, which they can use to take control of their own health. Additionally, new multi-specialty co-designed interventions will be trialled to benefit families and save health dollars in the future.