Consortium kicks off with first meeting

The Bump2Baby and Me consortium held its kick off meeting on 1st April 2020. It had been scheduled to take place in Dublin, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Project Coordinator Dr Sharleen O’Reilly of University College Dublin hosted the meeting virtually.

The international project team, which stretches from Australia to Ireland, discussed how to progress the project, how it will run and what needs to be done over the course of the next five years to achieve our objectives. Of course, this involved factoring in the delays and obstacles we potentially face as a result of the current situation.

The project is developing an innovative health-coaching app for pregnant women to address the issues of diabetes, obesity and overweight in pregnancy, tailoring weight management for each mum and helping them to give their baby the best start around feeding and active play. The trials of the health coaching app, which links to a real health coach, will run in maternity hospitals in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Australia. As healthcare professionals are having to change the way maternity care is provide, this is very relevant to the current challenges of remote healthcare service delivery.

It was a very productive and collaborative meeting and the whole team is looking forward to working together to achieve the project’s goals.