TIMMS: Improving outcomes for babies and children
Babies born at the limits of viability
Only 1 in 500 babies are born before 24 weeks' gestation; however, they comprise around a fifth of all baby deaths. This work aims to improve care for babies born at this extremely early stage of pregnancy.
This programme of work was funded by the National Institute of Healthcare Research through a personal career development fellowship awarded to Professor Lucy Smith. Lucy is continuing to undertake work to improve the care for babies, parents and families following extremely preterm birth.
This work is part of the TIMMS research group at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. TIMMS is known worldwide for carrying out research to improve pregnancy outcomes and the survival and long-term outcomes for babies born early (preterm).
Why is this work important?
There is wide variation between clinical teams as to whether a baby born at 22 or 23 weeks is showing signs of life and consequently whether they are reported as live born. In one hospital a woman may have their baby’s death registered as a neonatal death but in another hospital the same woman’s baby may have gone unregistered as a miscarriage. This has major unrecognised consequences on the NHS and parents. Firstly it impacts on data quality as healthcare services are not compared on a "like for like" basis. Secondly it leads to inequalities in parents' access to maternity and paternity leave, financial support and provision of official documents for their baby.
Resources from the study
Parents experiences’ of baby loss before 24 weeks of pregnancy
- Visit the to find out about the experiences of parents whose baby died before, during or shortly after birth at 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy by seeing and hearing parents share their personal stories on film.
- Read our paper on
- See also our
Determining signs of life in extremely preterm babies
- View the on determining signs of life in babies born before 24 weeks of pregnancy
The impact of variation in the determination of signs of life on reported mortality rates
- Listen to our about this issue
- Read our paper on
- Here is our paper in the Lancet on
- We have published information on
- Here is an editorial on
- Read here the findings of a European workshop on
- Here is another editorial on
- A paper on