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The Alberta Models of Care and Preterm Birth Study
Identifying pregnancy care practices in Alberta that support people to have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies - is key.
What is the issue?
Worldwide, about 15 million babies are born early every year. Giving birth earlier than 3 weeks before a person’s due date is called ‘preterm birth’. Every year, about 8% of babies will be born preterm in Canada, with Alberta having one of the highest preterm birth rates of all the Canadian provinces - higher than the national average.
How is pregnancy care provided in Canada?
Pregnant people and their babies can be cared for by an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN), a family physician, or a midwife during their pregnancy, birth, and after birth. These healthcare professionals provide the same primary medical care for low- to moderate-risk pregnant people that are based on national and provincial guidelines but use different approaches, which are called ‘models of care.’
Sometimes, a midwife or family physician may share the responsibility with an OBGYN if the pregnancy is at higher risk for complications.
Why is this research important?
Babies born preterm can experience multiple complications that can affect them for the rest of their life.
Preterm birth also affects the baby’s family because it is emotionally and financially stressful, and sometimes, babies that were born too soon may require care and treatment into adulthood.
Preterm birth also affects the healthcare system. Babies that are born too early often need to be hospitalized for a long time in intensive care units where they can be supported and cared for while they continue to grow and develop until they are strong enough to go home.
Very little is known about the association between pregnancy care models and preterm birth rates in Alberta.
What does this research aim to achieve?
This research aims to examine characteristics of care provision to determine how care is perceived by pregnant people.
This knowledge can help shape pregnancy care in Alberta - by drawing from the strengths of various pregnancy care models - with the goal to reduce the number of babies born preterm every year.
Discovering Together: Our Study's Path
Our Research Approach
Mixed methods research is an approach that combines different data sources to understand an area of interest more comprehensively. Typically, it involves including quantitative and qualitative data.
Numbers in Care
Quantitative data are gathered routinely as people access the healthcare system for care. This type of data could include things like your age or the weight of your baby at birth. To maintain the confidentiality of personal health information, laws and policies ensure that this data is protected and not publicly available.
Researchers follow a strict process to access health data for research purposes.
Stories that Inform
Qualitative data is obtained through interviewing people. People's lived experiences are rich data sources that provide context around the issue being examined. Asking people about their knowledge and experience can provide researchers with the information needed to understand how the area of interest can be addressed.
Similarly to quantitative data, people's identities and personal information must remain private, and policies ensure that researchers maintain confidentiality when using data gathered from talking to people about their knowledge and experiences.
Care Models and Birth Outcomes
The AMCAP study is a mixed methods study that aims to examine preterm birth rates in Alberta and whether there is a connection to pregnancy care delivery within the healthcare system, other factors that may influence pregnancy care delivery, and how pregnant people or their partners perceive the care they receive.
Part 1: Data-Driven Insights
We're analyzing Alberta healthcare data from 2012 to 2022 to track preterm birth rates across different care models for those at low to moderate risk. Based on preliminary findings and findings from similar studies, the research team was able to design specific questions to ask people to understand pregnancy care in Alberta. (Ethics ID: REB23-0977)
Part 2: Your Experiences Matter
By using the specially designed interview questions, we are now searching for people who have recently navigated pregnancy care in Alberta to share their personal experiences with us.
Get Involved
Join us in shaping the future of pregnancy care. If you or your partner received pregnancy care in Alberta between 2022 to 2024, your insights can help enhance care quality and outcomes. Share your experience and be a part of the positive change.
The Birth Story of AMCAP
“I solemnly pledge myself to the service of humanity…” This is the pledge I took 16 years ago at my graduation ceremony in my native country, South Africa.
My career has been a rich experience of continuous learning, flavoured by the multitude of cultures I have had the privilege to serve and work alongside in South Africa and Canada. I have a passion for rural obstetric and neonatal care, and it is there, in the cold northern parts of Canada, that the Alberta Models of Care and Preterm Birth (AMCAP) Study was born.
I have been involved in caring for many families and their babies who have experienced being born too soon. Even with all its advances, modern medicine has not been able to entirely predict and prevent preterm birth – I believe it is a public health crisis that deserves to be explored from every possible angle. Tethering apart how pregnancy care in the healthcare system is provided and identifying what aspects seem to be valued by people is a step towards uncovering possible solutions.
The people whose lives we touch with the care that we provide can help us learn how well the healthcare system and pregnancy care are working and perceived - and where there is room for improvement.
Come with me on this journey to find answers. “Giving children a healthy start in life is the moral obligation of every one of us.” ~ Nelson Mandela, 2002.
Sonje Juul is a British Columbia Registered Midwife and a PhD Candidate in Health Services Research at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. The AMCAP Study is part of the work she is doing to obtain her Doctoral Degree in Health Services Research.