Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI)

The institute was founded in 2009 under the aegis of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

It is currently running 4 large, global studies involving over 350 researchers from a wide range of countries.

The Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI) works alongside Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health - bringing together world experts to resolve priority maternal and perinatal health problems on a global scale.

Interpractice 21st team and intergrowth 21st team — INTERPRACTICE-21st Team (left) and INTERGROWTH-21st Team (right)

what we do

We engage medical researchers, social scientists and health management experts in some of the major issues affecting the health of mothers and newborn babies, particularly in resource-poor settings.

WHO WE ARE

The President of OMPHI is Professor Michael Katz and the Co-Directors are Professors Stephen Kennedy (Professor of Reproductive Medicine) and Professor Jose Villar (Professor of Perinatal Medicine)

OMPHI FELLOWSHIP

The OMPHI International fellowship is awarded to fellows to develop specific skills relevant to the field of global Maternal & Perinatal Health.

See Past Fellows and See Current Fellows

our studies

Our research focuses on fetal growth and nutrition and the effects of infection (e.g.malaria) in pregnancy; initiatives aimed at developing e-learning programmes in developing countries, and surveys of healthcare providers in resource-poor settings to identify barriers to implementing effective interventions in pregnancy. Our studies are funded by:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

MacArthur Foundation

EngenderHealth

Maternal Health Task Force MHTF

MHTF is a project of the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health which works to create a strong, well-informed and integrated community with equitable access to high-quality technical evidence to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide. MHTF is led by Ana Langer, a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology and a reproductive health expert.

OMPHI also works with The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research on various joint initiatives. GFMER is a non-profit organisation established in 2002. It is supported by the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Department of Social Affairs of the City of Geneva and other Swiss and international institutions. The Foundation works in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). GFMER is a WHO Collaborating Centre in Education and Research in Human Reproduction. The overall objectives of the Foundation are to furnish health education and research programmes that can be applied by developing countries, and countries in economic transition, and to establish collaboration between entities from the public and private sectors. See more

INTERGROWTH-21^st

Intergrowth 21st

An International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium dedicated to improving perinatal health through the development of new fetal and newborn growth standards, providing tools for the continuity of care from conception to 5 years of age. It is a global, multidisciplinary network of more than 300 researchers and clinicians from 27 institutions in 18 countries worldwide, coordinated from the University of Oxford. It was launched in 2008 by José Villa r & Stephen Kennedy to challenge the assumption that babies inherently grow differently around the world. The project is the largest, population‐based, prospective study of fetal and newborn growth and development ever conducted, involving nearly 60,000 mothers and babies. See more

INTERBIO-21^st

The INTERBIO-21^stStudy is an extension to the INTERGROWTH-21^st Project. The study aims to improve the phenotypic characterisation of the fetal growth restriction/small for gestational age (FGR/SGA) and preterm birth syndromes at molecular, biochemical and clinical levels so as to develop better strategies to correct the effects of an adverse intrauterine environment.The study is initially focusing on the effects of nutrition on fetal growth and development in healthy and complicated pregnancies from seven different populations worldwide by using epigenetic profiling of cord blood and placental tissues to understand better the causes of the FGR/SGA and preterm birth syndromes. The populations being studied have very different risk profiles as they include some women in resource-poor settings at high risk for FGR/SGA and preterm delivery because of malnutrition and/or infection (HIV and malaria). Standardised information about pregnancy outcomes and anthropometric measurements are also being collected using tools developed in the INTERGROWTH-21^stProject.

INTERBIO-21^st has two components: the Fetal and Neonatal Studies. In the Fetal Study, which is limited to certain settings, women are being monitored from early pregnancy onwards so as to capture very detailed information about fetal growth patterns; in the Neonatal Study, women are identified at birth provided that gestational age has been confirmed by ultrasound < 24 weeks’ gestation. See more

INTERPRACTICE-21^st

The next phase of the INTERGROWTH-21^st Project, known as INTERPRACTICE-21^st, has now begun. INTERPRACTICE-21^st aims to promote optimal postnatal growth of preterm infants by:

(a) standardising growth measurement in babies born preterm by using the INTERGROWTH-21^st international standards

and

(b) implementing evidence-based feeding recommendations based on breast feeding.

We have formed partnerships with leading neonatal units across the world to introduce these interventions in their hospitals and countries, with the ultimate aim of wider dissemination and high-level health policy support.

Using recommended feeding practices and international standards to monitor postnatal growth and development should help avoid nutritional patterns that may be associated with childhood overweight and obesity, and improve the growth, development and survival of preterm infants.

https://intergrowth21.tghn.org/interpractice-21st/

Click here to access the study protocol and study documents for INTERPRACTICE-21^st

The support of the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation’ is gratefully acknowledged.

Collaborators in the INTERPRACTICE Project

Jose Villar^a, MD, Francesca Giuliani^b, MD, Fernando Barros^c,d, MD, Paola Roggero^e, MD, Irma Alejandra Coronado Zarco^f, MD, Maria Albertina S. Rego^g, MD, Roseline Ochieng^h, MD, Maria Lorella Gianni^e, MD, Suman Raoⁱ, MD, Ann Lambert^a, PhD, Irina Ryumina^j, MD, Carl Britto^k, MD, Deepak Chawla^l, MD, Leila Cheikh Ismail^a, PhD, Syed Rehan Ali^m, MD, Jane Hirst^a, MD, Jagjit Singh Tejiⁿ, MD, Karim Abawi^o, MD, Jacqueline Asibey^p, MD, Josephine Agyeman-Duah^o, MSc, Kenny McCormick^q, MD, Enrico Bertino^r, MD, Aris T Papageorghiou^a, MD, Josep Figueras-Aloy^s, MD, Montserrat Izquierdo Renau^t Ricardo Nieto^u MD, Constanza Soto Conti^u MD, Gabriela Tavchioska^v MD, Alexandre Lapillonne^w MD, Zulfiqar Bhutta^xPhD, Stephen Kennedy^a MD, Ana Langer^yMD.

Affiliations

^aNuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health and Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

^bAzienda Ospedaliera OIRM Sant’Anna Citta della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Italy

^cPrograma de Pós-Graduação em Saúde e Comportamento, Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil

^dPrograma de Pós-Graduação em Epidemiologia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil

^eNICU, Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. "Ca' Granda" Milano, Italy

^fInstituto Nacional de Perinatología "Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes", Mexico City, Mexico

^gDepartmento de Pediatria, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

^hThe Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

ⁱSt. John's Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, India

^jCenter for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Moscow, Russian Federation

^kDepartment of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

^lGovernment Medical College, Chandigarh, India

^mThe Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

ⁿAnn & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

^oGeneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland

^pHoly Family Hospital, Techiman, Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana

^qJohn Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, UK

^rDipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche e dell’Adolescenza, Cattedra di Neonatologia, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

^sUniversity of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

^tSaint Joan de Deu Barcelona Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

^uThe Sardá Maternity Hospital, Esteban de Luca 21 51 CABA CP 1246, Buenos Aires, Argentina

^vGeneral Hospital ,,Borka Taleski" street ,Trajko Tarcan" bb Prilep 7500 R. Macedonia

^wDept of Neonatology, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 149 rue de Sèvres, 75015 Paris

^xCenter for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

^yHarvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA,USA

Our team

Stephen Kennedy

Head of Department, Professor of Reproductive Medicine & Co-Director of the Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI).
José Villar

Professor of Perinatal Medicine & Co-Director of the Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI).
Aris Papageorghiou

Director of Clinical Research (OMPHI) & Associate Professor
Ann Lambert

INTERGROWTH-21st Project Administrator