BaBi East London
Welcome to BaBi East London!
The BaBi East London team is a group of researchers based at Barts Health NHS Trust, in the heart of East London. Within the trust, we care for about 17,000 pregnant women every year, and about 70% of them are from non-white ethnic groups. Women from marginalised backgrounds are at higher risk of complications during pregnancy (such as diabetes, hypertension or birth complications), and we are well placed to find more about reasons for this by making better use of existing health data.
For our project, we will aim to ask pregnant women for permission to use the leftover biological samples that they already routinely provide during pregnancy. By linking insights from these samples to routine data, we hope to learn more about the connections between pre-existing health conditions, ethnicity, and health outcomes for the mother and baby – for instance how mothers do at childbirth as well as in the longer term, and how their babies’ health develops. Ultimately, this research will be the basis for future improvements in maternity care with a focus on diversity and equity.
Check out the BaBi East London website here: www.barc-research.org/babi-eastlondon
Meet our Principal Investigator: Dr Stamatina Iliodromiti
Matina is an obstetrician at the Royal London Hospital and a clinical academic and Acting Lead of the Centre for Women’s Health at Queen Mary University of London. Matina’s principal interest is in maternal epidemiology and health inequalities, and she has expertise in advanced statistical methodology, life-course epidemiology, data linkage, handling of big data and meta-analysis. Some of her recent and ongoing work includes a THIS Institute fellowship to develop a “learning healthcare system” utilising routine maternity records, as well as evaluating the link between birthweight and maternal outcomes through routine datasets, funded by Wellbeing of Women. Matina is a member of Wellbeing of Women Research Advisory Committee and is involved in various national and international collaborative projects looking at improving women’s life-course health.
