Abstract
BackgroundMeaningful public involvement in maternity research remains challenging, partly due to the transient nature of pregnancy. This paper reflects on the development, implementation and simple evaluation of an innovative and inclusive approach to engaging and involving pregnant and early postnatal women in research.MethodsBetween January and February 2018, a Research Fellow in Maternity Care, a Professor of Evidence Based Maternity Care, and a Patient and Public Involvement Lead convened for a number of meetings to discuss how public involvement and engagement might be improved for pregnancy-related research. A stakeholder group was created, including a local community matron, a community engagement officer at a local children’s centre, public contributors, and senior members of the Maternal and Child Health theme of the West Midlands Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC WM). The team worked together to develop a format for Yoga for Bump sessions: a free 90-min session, offered weekly, which included research involvement/engagement, pregnancy yoga, and a ‘question and answer’ session with a midwife.ResultsA total of 67 women from two local communities in Birmingham attended Yoga for Bump sessions, which ran between May and December of 2018. Evaluation of the sessions suggested benefits to both women and researchers: it created mutually beneficial relationships between contributors and researchers, provided opportunities for women to engage and get involved in research that was directly relevant to them, and provided a convenient and efficient way for researchers to involve and engage pregnant women from diverse backgrounds in their research. Unintended benefits included self-reported improvements in women’s health and wellbeing.ConclusionsYoga for Bump demonstrates an innovative approach to engaging and involving pregnant and early postnatal women; combining a free exercise class with healthcare advice and opportunities to engage with and be involved in research, and demonstrating mutual benefits for those involved. This model has the potential to be replicated elsewhere to support inclusive public involvement in pregnancy-related research. Further work is needed to design and evaluate similar approaches to involvement/engagement and explore potential funding avenues to enhance sustainability.
Highlights
Meaningful public involvement in maternity research remains challenging, partly due to the transient nature of pregnancy
We designed a new way to encourage pregnant women to get involved and engaged in research. We did this by offering a free pregnancy yoga class to women
This class included a ‘question and answer’ session with a midwife and a discussion with a researcher about some research to do with pregnancy
Summary
Meaningful public involvement in maternity research remains challenging, partly due to the transient nature of pregnancy. In addition to ensuring the relevance and suitability of research, meaningful public involvement can improve the quality of the research outcomes [1,2,3]. Further benefits of meaningful public involvement throughout the research cycle include ensuring that the research methods used are acceptable from practical and ethical perspectives [4, 5], and facilitating dissemination of research findings in ways that are accessible by, and appropriate for, audiences relevant to the focus of the study. Ensuring that public contributors are embedded in a meaningful way throughout the research cycle is an expectation for UK health and social care research, and in November 2019 the NIHR launched UK Standards for Involvement to improve the quality and consistency of public involvement in health and social care research [8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
