§ Mr. John Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what studies his Department has made concerning perinatal and neonatal mortality; and what action he will take to try to improve the situation.
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§ Dr. VaughanThe medical research council, from funds provided by the Department of Education and Science and the Health Departments, is the main Government-funded body supporting research relevant to perinatal and neonatal mortality. In 1978–79 it spent £933,721 on this research. Details are given below. Other Government-funded research is supported by universities and hospital medical schools.
The needs of research in these fields is reviewed from time to time as part of the process for orderly review of progress and needs of research over the whole field of medicine undertaken by the medical research council and the Health Departments.
The Department also directly supports research into health and personal social services aspects of these conditions and in the same year this expenditure totalled £260,000.
Perinatal and neonatal mortality have shown a decline in recent years, but the causes remain complex: we hope that research now being undertaken will contribute to further improvements in the years ahead.
RESEARCH SUPPORTED BY THE MEDICAL COUNCIL
§ Dr. C. C. Booth—Clinical Research Centre, Harrow
- Fetal and Neonatal Development; the effect of infections in pregnancy.
- Simple methods of perinatal monitoring of the mother and child.
- Identification of the components of human milk that protect new-born infants against e.coli enteritis.
- Infra-red and schlieren studies of infants in incubators.
- Perinatal growth and development.
- Abnormal organic acidurias in identification of inborn errors of metabolism particularly mental retardation and severe metabolic disturbance in neonatal period.
- New methods for the diagnosis of the inborn errors of metabolism in the carrier state, prenatally, postnatally and in adults.
- Role of hereditary metabolic disease in stillbirths and perinatal deaths.
- Encephalography of fetus and newborn infant.
- Study of intrauterine growth of the fetus by ultrasonography: early identification of fetal distress, abnormalities and "small for date" babies.
- Infectious agents in respiratory distress of neonates.
§ Professor H. J. Evans—MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit, Edinburgh
- Cytogenetics of selected populations, family studies and clinical follow-up of chromosomally abnormal.
- Chromosome polymorphisms in man: incidence, transmission and possible clinical and genetic consequences.
§
Dr. C. O. Carter—MRC Clinical Genetics Unit, London
Study of Isoenzymes in leukaemic cells.
§
Dr. R. G. Whitehead, Dunn Nutrition Unit, Cambridge
Epidemiological studies of nutritional status in pregnant and lactating women and their infants and other groups at risk in the United Kingdom.
§
Dr. R. S. Bray—MRC Laboratories, The Gambia, West Africa
Infantile diarrhoea.
§ Dr. G. R. Sergeant—MRC Laboratories, Jamaica
- Continuous longterm studies on management of adult and paediatric sickle cell clinics.
- Longterm sickle cell cohort study.
§
Professor R. Illsley—MRC Medical Sociology Unit, Aberdeen
Maternal and Neonatal Data Bank.
§
Dr. T. Lind—Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Maternal physiological adaptations during normal and abnormal pregnancy and their relation to fetal growth and development.
§
Dr. H. C. Whittle—Zaria, Nigeria
Immunological study of measles and malnutrition, and meningococcal infection.
§
Professor J. Dobbing—Manchester University
Vulnerable periods in developing brain.
§
Dr. Margaret Ounsted—Oxford University
Studies of fetal growth rate and the long term effects of obstetric and medical care in at risk pregnancies.
§
Dr. E. N. Thompson—Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff
Participation in the MRC Childhood Leukaemia Trials.
§
Professor D. Hull—Nottingham University
Radiant heat exchanges between human newborn infants and their environments.
§
Dr. J. Martin—Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool
Participation in clinical trials and investigations of childhood Leukaemia and nephroblastoma.
§
Professor R. R. A. Coombs—Cambridge University
Modified anaphylactic reaction to cows milk as a cause of cot death.
§
Professor S. Campbell—King's College Hospital Medical School, London
Fetal welbeing in diabetic women; assessment by ultrasound head to abdomen ratio and fetal breathing measurements.
§
Dr. T. Lind—Newcastle upon Tyne University
Maternal physiological adaptations during normal and abnormal pregnancy and their relation to fetal growth and development.
§
Dr. A. D. Bain—Edinburgh University
The contribution of chromosome abnormalities to stillbirths, neonatal deaths and abortions over 20 weeks gestation.
§
Dr. Pauline M. Emerson—Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Leaukaemia trials.
§
Professor E. O. R. Reynolds—University College Hospital Medical School, London
Detection of brain-damage in newborn infants by ultrasound.
§
Dr. D. P. Southall—Cardiothoracic Institute, London
Are newborn infants with cardiac arrhythmias, prolonged aphoea, or both, at excess risk of sudden infant death?
§ RESEARCH DIRECTLY SUPPORTED BY DHSS
§
Professor E. Alberman—London Medical College
A project to measure the success of medical care in reducing the morbidity as well as mortality of babies weighing 2,000g or less at birth.
§
Professor J. Knowelden—Sheffield University
Multicentre study of post-perinatal mortality.
§
Dr. I. Chalmers—National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford
Confidential enquiries into perinatal deaths and documentation, validation and co-ordination of local perinatal survey data.
§
Professor F. Harris—Liverpool University
Liverpool congenital malformation register.
§
Professor R. E. A. Mapes—Medical Sociology Research Centre, Swansea University
Advice to parents during the ante-natal period.
§
Dr. A. Baldwin—Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, Oxford
Effect of termination of pregnancy on subsequent pregnancy outcome and long-term morbidity.
§
Dr. C. Kay—Royal College of General Practitioners
Study of sequelae of abortion.