Researchers from the University of Sheffield are playing a leading role in a new £50 million national research programme aiming to improve maternity care, reduce health inequalities and support better outcomes for women, babies and families.
Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Maternity Disparities Consortium is the most significant investment in maternal health research in a generation. Over five years, the Consortium will bring together clinicians, researchers, women, families and communities across all four nations of the UK to develop practical, evidence-based solutions that improve care, reduce avoidable harm and support better outcomes.
The launch comes at a pivotal moment, with national attention focused on improving safety, equity and women’s experiences of maternity care. The Government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights the urgent need to improve care before and between pregnancies, particularly for marginalised communities. The Consortium will generate the evidence and interventions needed to help turn this ambition into reality.
Maternal health inequalities remain one of the most pressing challenges facing the NHS. Black women in the UK continue to face a substantially higher risk of dying during or after pregnancy than white women, while families in the most deprived communities continue to experience poorer outcomes. The Consortium’s work is built on the recognition that these inequalities are not inevitable and can be addressed through research-driven change.
The University of Sheffield is contributing to several key areas of the Consortium’s work, including community engagement, improving access to care, tackling discrimination and developing the next generation of maternity researchers.
Professor Parveen Ali, Professor of Nursing and Gender-Based Violence at the University of Sheffield, is co-leading the Consortium’s Community Engagement and Co-Production (CECP) function. This ensures that women, families, community organisations and peer researchers help shape research from the beginning, so that it reflects real experiences and reaches communities who are often least well served by existing maternity services.
Professor Ali is also supporting the Consortium’s work to understand and address racism, intersectionality and discrimination in maternity care, ensuring the experiences of women and communities affected by these inequalities help shape the research.
Parveen said: “My research has always focused on gender-based violence and the women whose voices are least often heard by services, and maternity care is one of the places where those experiences, from domestic abuse to reproductive coercion, can have the most serious consequences for women and their babies.
“Co-leading the Consortium’s community engagement and co-production function means women, families and community organisations are not simply subjects of this research but partners in it from day one, shaping the questions we ask and the solutions we design.
“That is how research changes care for the communities who need it most, in South Yorkshire and across the UK.”
Professor Dilly Anumba, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Sheffield, is part of the leadership team for the Consortium’s Access, Communication and Experience of Care (ACE) workstream.
The ACE workstream will explore how maternity services can become easier to access, understand and navigate, with a focus on improving communication, language support, shared decision-making and experiences of care for those facing the greatest barriers.
Professor Anumba’s research will focus on co-producing tools with communities to improve preconception, interpregnancy and early pregnancy care for marginalised women and communities.
Dilly said: “Our previous research in Sheffield identified delayed engagement with maternity care among socially deprived white women and women from ethnic minority backgrounds. The evidence is stark: in the UK, these groups—particularly Black women—face a significantly higher risk of dying during or after pregnancy compared to white women.
“These disparities are not inevitable; addressing them requires robust evidence about what interventions work, for whom, and in which circumstances.
“By partnering with communities to co-develop tools that improve access to and experiences of care before, between and during pregnancy, we can save the lives of mothers and babies while advancing public health.”
Across the UK, the Consortium will investigate how maternity care can be improved before, during and after pregnancy. This includes supporting women and families before and between pregnancies, improving care during pregnancy and birth, strengthening support after birth, and developing better approaches to address inequalities linked to racism and discrimination.
The programme will also use data, digital tools, health economics and real-world evaluation to understand what works, for whom and in which circumstances, helping identify practical changes that can be delivered fairly across different communities.
Alongside its research contributions, the University of Sheffield is supporting the future maternity research workforce through two funded PhD studentships. These will explore reproductive coercion and perinatal mental health, and how community research partners can help create more equitable periconception care.
Through the Maternity Disparities Consortium, Sheffield researchers will work alongside communities and partners across the UK to develop evidence-based solutions that improve maternity care, reduce inequalities and help create better outcomes for women, babies and families.