Case study: Research Midwife Ellmina wants your help

A Research Midwife is urging the public to join clinical studies to help improve future treatment.

Ellmina McKenzie, who works for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), has been part of research for almost three years, specialising in Obstetrics and Maternity.

Based at based at New Cross Hospital, she is currently working on four studies – Giant PANDA, CAPE, SNAP-3 and PANDA WS3 – and is using International Day of the Midwife today as a platform to raise awareness.

Ellmina said: “Only by testing treatments and care processes properly will we know if they are effective and safe – and we need your help to do this.

“Patient care and safety should be at the heart of everything we do. Research informs practice and is crucial in providing the evidence we need to transform services and improve outcomes for women and their babies.”

Giant Panda is short for Pregnancy ANtihypertensive Drugs: which Agent is best. It aims to compare two medications – labetalol/nifedipine – to see which is best for pregnant women with high blood pressure and their babies.

Calcium supplementation for women At high-risk of Pre-Eclampsia (CAPE) aims to find out whether taking calcium supplements – alongside usual antenatal care – reduces the risk of women developing pre-eclampsia.

Smoking Nicotine And Pregnancy Trial (SNAP-3) is an open-label randomised controlled trial of enhanced support and Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) offered for preloading, lapse recovery and smoking reduction: impact on smoking in pregnancy.

It is testing to see if using NRT in new ways can make it more likely for pregnant women to stop smoking.

The primary objective of PANDA, or Primary prevention of maternal ANaemia to avoid preterm Delivery and other Adverse outcomes, is to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of a primary prevention strategy for iron deficiency anaemia in pregnancy with an optimised low dose oral iron supplementation intervention.