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. 2026 Jan 29;11(1):3045. doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.3045

Table 2. Ideas indicated as most important and urgent at the workshop.

Research topic Stakeholder group Answerable with Available Routinely Collected Data from BiB4All?
Mental Health
Explore the effects of women entering maternity services with pre-existing severe mental health on parent/infant relationships, bonding, prevention of separation. Midwives No – data on outcomes were unavailable or challenging to quantify with routine data
Investigate the impact of parental mental health on problems such as coping with sleeping and fussy eating. Health Visitors and Clinicians No – data on outcomes were unavailable or challenging to quantify with routine data
Examine the impact of parents with mental health difficulties not meeting the threshold for adult mental health services and the impact on family relationships and emotional wellbeing. Consider the impact of implementing a therapist that can provide links to crucial services. Health Visitors and Clinicians No – data on outcomes were unavailable or challenging to quantify with routine data
Explore the impact of early support (in the perinatal period and early years) on child and parental mental health. Discussion focused on adverse childhood experiences and parental experience with trauma and adversity as this may impact their ability to parent and be emotionally available to the baby. Commissioners and Researchers Potentially – depends on definition of early support and parental experience of trauma
Explore the impact of early years and pregnancy on early years development, where a comparison between child parent psychotherapy and usual care could be considered. Commissioners and Researchers No – insufficient data on number of individuals receiving the treatment
Explore the effect of mental health during the neonatal period on emotional attachment needs, breastfeeding, interaction, bonding and child emotional and physical development and school readiness. Midwives Potentially – a number of these outcomes can be quantified using routine data however, some are unavailable in routine data. This question would need to be broken down into several questions
Diet and childhood obesity
Explore the impact of proximity between take-aways and households on childhood obesity. Commissioners and Researchers Potentially – depends on the specific age range of children being examined, as data availability and the definition of obesity vary across different developmental stages
Covid-19
Explore the impact of access to limited support during perinatal period and birth, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how these impact on maternal mental health and child development. Public contributors No - insufficient data pre-pandemic; unable to measure access to support in routine data
Investigate the impact of social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, missed nursery time and play time on babies and infants forming meaningful relationships. Health Visitors and Clinicians No - insufficient data pre-pandemic; unable to measure outcome in available routine data
Explore the impact of Covid-19 on environmental allergies. Midwives No - insufficient data pre-pandemic
Explore the impact of Covid-19 on the likelihood of having a breech baby, linking in with rates of elective sections. Midwives Potentially
Inequalities and access
Explore why Black and ethnic minority communities are not accessing health care services and the barriers influencing this. Midwives No – better addressed with qualitative data not captured in routine service data
Evaluate the effectiveness of online antenatal care and education compared with face- to-face and compare across the region. Midwives No – data on exposures were not available
Infant feeding
Explore the impact of infant feeding on maternal mental health, meaningful mother/baby relationships (secure and insecure attachment) and long -term child health outcomes. Midwives Potentially – a number of these outcomes can be quantified using routine data however, some are unavailable in routine data. This question would need to be broken down into several questions
Examine the impact of reduced support for infant feeding, as a result of Covid-19, on weaning. Midwives No - insufficient data pre-pandemic; unable to quantify exposure using routine data
Maternal experience of breastfeeding, including whether she stopped breastfeeding before she wanted to, access to support services, and how this impacted on the mother/baby relationship. Midwives No – data were unavailable or challenging to quantify with routine data
Labour and delivery
Explore the factors influencing the likelihood of having a breech baby and the effects of a breech baby, such as cost implications and the health of the mother and baby. Midwives Potentially – question needs further refinement

Table 2 lists the identified important and urgent research topics categorised into the following themes: mental health, diet and childhood obesity, Covid-19, inequalities and access, infant feeding, and labour and delivery. For each topic, the table indicates which stakeholder group posed that topic and whether it could be addressed using routinely collected data from the BiB4All cohort available at the time of the workshop. The stakeholder groups included: Midwives, Health Visitors and Clinicians, Public contributors, and Commissioners and Researchers.