Theme 1: Better Beginnings
To investigate the health and wellbeing of mothers and children, giving babies and pre-schoolers the best start in life.
Goals
- Understanding risk factors for preterm birth and pregnancy complications, and improving outcomes following these events.
- Invest in discovery science as it relates to understanding key mechanisms related to fetal growth, development, and parturition.
Walking Together on Parallel Paths
As part of One Child Every Child, we have committed to walking Parallels Paths focused of the well-being of all children.
Our Indigenous led research is done on the oral path and follows oral traditions. Our written path research programs are led by non-Indigenous researchers who follow written systems processes. Some researchers conduct projects that follow both oral and written traditions.
OCEC is exploring where these paths can cross to improve outcomes for all children.
Oral Path
Written Path
Collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Leason
Establish a national network unite the fires burning across the country to develop baseline knowledge in First nations, Métis, Inuit, and Indigenous maternal child health. This baseline knowledge will be generated through a combination of environmental scans, literature reviews, including commissioned research reports and rapid research responses, all based on systematic, scoping, realist, and meta-synthesis review methods.
Collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Leason
This baseline knowledge will be generated through a combination of environmental scans, literature reviews, including commissioned research reports and rapid research responses, all based on systematic, scoping, realist, and meta-synthesis review methods.
Collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Leason
Create and establish Indigenous birth cohort studies in Canada by 2025/2026- 2030.
Identify FN/M/I birth cohort studies sites and capacity, community permissions/ownership.
Recruit highly qualified personnel and team (experts)
Develop project parameters terms of reference (research outlines), code of conduct, values, quality indicators and workplan.
Dr Amy Metcalfe
Premature birth affects approximately 8% of births in Canada, impacting children and families. This project builds on the successful P3 Cohort study, which focuses on predicting preterm births and improving outcomes for children born prematurely.
Data from this project will be crucial for creating and validating models that combine epidemiological and biological information to predict both first-time and repeat preterm births.
Additionally, by studying brain and child development in preterm infants, researchers hope to develop new strategies to protect brain health and provide early, targeted support for those at risk of future challenges.
Dr Padma Kaul
The program will investigate how clinical, genetic, socio-economic, and behavioral factors influence neonatal and early childhood outcomes in cases of pregnancy complications and conditions. The program plans to develop research and data infrastructure to position the province as a leader in population- level perinatal and early childhood health research.
Dr Meghan Riddell
In this research program we will harness the power of stem cells and “organs in a dish” to identify how placenta and brain cells communicate during early human development to shape healthy development. The knowledge created will produce an early human brain-placenta communication atlas.