Protocol Paper

Born and Bred in (BaBi): an efficient, place-based birth e-cohort network 

Information is routinely collected and recorded when people use public services such as health, education, and social care. Increasingly, this routinely collected information is being linked together and used in research to learn about how local services can better meet the needs of the people it serves. The Born and Bred in (BaBi) project is a network of local research groups that ask pregnant women during their routine maternity appointments for permission to link together information that is routinely collected about them and their baby for research. BaBi also asks for permission to contact them about other relevant research opportunities.

This protocol describes how the BaBi network was founded on the success of ‘Born in Bradford,’ a research project that has followed the health and lives of families in Bradford since 2007. Following the same group of people over time for research is called a cohort study. The BaBi network team designed the cohort study carefully to make sure that as many pregnant women as possible are able to take part.

The first BaBi cohort site was set up in Bradford in 2019, known locally as BiB4All, where all women having maternity care at Bradford Royal Infirmary were eligible to take part. Other local areas were then supported by the BiB4All team to set up the same process in their hospitals, which resulted in the BaBi network.

The first aim for each local BaBi cohort is to link together routinely collected data from multiple sources to build a clearer picture of families lives over time and use this information to shape local services. The second aim is to bring together data from the local cohorts to answer important research questions together across England.

Authors: Sally Bridges, Hollie Henderson, Kayley Ciesla, Kate Robinson, Kath Roberts, Diane Farrar, Dan Mason, Alex Newsham, Sabah Shaib, Julie Appleyard, John Wright, Maria Bryant 

References: Bridges S, Henderson H, Ciesla K et al. Born and Bred in (BaBi): an efficient, place-based birth e-cohort network [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. NIHR Open Res 2025, 5:66 (https://doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.13996.1)