Born and Bred In (BaBi)

BaBi Hull

Welcome to BaBi Hull!

BaBi Hull operates from Hull Royal Infirmary which also has a number of additional services based across Hull and East Yorkshire, such as clinics within local children’s centres, and health centres. It employs around 11,000 staff and welcomes around one million patients through its doors every year.

Born and Bred in Hull (BaBi Hull)

Born and Bred in Hull is a project being run by Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital and is part of a group of ‘Born and Bred in (BaBi)’electronic birth cohort studies. BaBi Hull and East Yorkshire uses routinely-collected data about parents and their babies to explore and improve health and wellbeing of our families.

BaBi Hull's Maternity services are provided in the purpose-built Women and Children’s Hospital at the Hull Royal Infirmary site. They provide care to over 5,000 parents and babies every year. You can choose a birth that suits your circumstances at home, in the Fatima Allam Birth Centre, or in the labour ward under midwife or obstetric-led care. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit provides tertiary neonatal care for babies born at any gestation who require medical treatment.

How does it work

Women booked for maternity care at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital will be invited to become part of the study by one of our midwives during routine antenatal appointments. If happy to participate, health researchers will join data about mother and child, looking into ways to improve healthcare and services through research and planning in Hull and East Yorkshire and beyond.

If you would like more information or would like to get involved, please click here.

Meet our Principal Investigator: Helen Birks

Helen is the Principal Investigator for BaBi Hull and East Yorkshire and is the Research, Development and Innovation Matron for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Helen has a wealth of both clinical and research experience, and has had a wide and varied career holding a range of nursing and midwifery roles over her 30 years with the National Health Service. Helen is also a Nursing and Midwifery Council Registered Lecturer and holds an MSc in Education.

She has spent time in Higher Education supporting the development and education of student nurses and student midwives, and has a keen interest in developing students for the future and engaging students in research.

Helen has also held a range of specialist research roles within the trust since 2010 including Research Midwife, Academic Oncology Trials Unit Manager and Quality Assurance Research Monitor.

Helen currently leads a large nursing and midwifery research team, and engages with a range of stakeholders across the locality, all of whom are invested in improving access to research opportunities for families and patients, and delivering high quality research care that improves care.

Helen’s current research interests are maternal and child health, domestic violence, families’ experiences of postnatal care services, teenage pregnancy, social disadvantage, and childbirth-related PTSD.

Research Midwife: Sarah Collins

Sarah is a research midwife at Hull. She qualified as a general nurse in 1993 and as a midwife in 1995. Sarah has spent most of her midwifery career as a community midwife in various parts of Hull and East Yorkshire, as well as working in specialist clinics for teenage and vulnerable parents. Sarah also worked for the Local Maternity and Neonatal System as project lead for the Ask a Midwife service for two years before taking up her role as research midwife for maternity and reproductive health in Hull.

Sarah is excited to develop Hull’s participation in reproductive health research alongside the BaBi study to improve the health and wellbeing of our families.

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist: Benjamin Snowden

Benjamin is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Hull University Teaching Hospitals (part of the NHS Humber Health Partnership). He is a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Hull York Medical School and has been working in the local region since 2013. His clinical interests include general obstetrics and benign gynaecological surgery. Given the diverse populations across Hull, East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, he is particularly interested in the support we can give to patients prior and during their pregnancies to have impacts on their growing pregnancy and their child's development into their childhood and beyond. He is hoping that BaBi will be one of the first steps in developing the research participation within the department.

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