Our aim is to help women who are expecting a baby to make confident decisions about what they choose to eat, based on accurate and up-to-date scientific evidence.

ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRES NOW LIVE 

June 2023: Recruitment open! In this stage of our study we’ll be asking women living in the North Bristol area who have recently found out they are pregnant to fill in some online questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle. We’ll also ask you for a urine sample, plus an extra sample of blood when you visit the antenatal clinic. Click here for details.

 

May 2022: Are you a midwife practicing in England? We are interested in how you give advice on diet in pregnancy – see below to click through to our online questionnaire.

This questionnaire is now closed – thank you to all of you who filled it in

 

September 2021: Have you recently had a baby and live in England? We are interested in what you ate when you were pregnant

This questionnaire is now closed – thank you to all of you who filled it in

 

We’re also recruiting for our Virtual Advisory Group. Take a look at our volunteering page to find details of these opportunities.

NEW! We have our first scientific paper available – See our FINDINGS section

ABOUT THE STUDY

Diet and nutrition are important factors in every pregnancy for the health and development of the baby, as well as the well-being of the mother.

The aim of the PEAR Study is to find out how helpful advice and guidance on diet in pregnancy is. We’d like to find out about the choices women make about what to eat when they are pregnant and where they get their most-trusted advice and information from. We’d like to know whether this advice and information actually affects how much of particular foods women eat.

It’s also important that we ask midwives about what advice and information they give to women, how they provide information (e.g. online, via apps or leaflets)  and their thoughts on what information is available.

We want to help women to make confident decisions about what they choose to eat, based on accurate scientific evidence.

The PEAR Study is funded by the Medical Research Council. The study has ethics approval from the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee, University of Bristol.

THE PEAR STUDY TEAM

Dr Caroline Taylor

The PEAR Study is run by Dr Caroline Taylor in the Centre for Academic Child Health, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Dr Taylor specialises in research on mother and child health especially in relation to nutrition and the environment. She’s recently also run projects on picky eating in preschool children and on how diet in the early childhood affects the likelihood of becoming overweight in teenage years.

Linda Mottram

Linda is the Study Manager for the PEAR Study. She works in the Centre for Academic Child Health and is a Registered Midwife with a background in Trial Management of large obstetric and paediatric trials. She also has experience working as a Senior Research Midwife, training staff and troubleshooting recruitment issues at participating hospital sites throughout the UK.

Dr Lucy Beasant

Also in in the Centre for Academic Child Health, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Dr Lucy Beasant specialises in research involving questionnaires, talking in depth with individual volunteers and running focus groups.

Find out more today

Contact us to find out how you can be involved

Whether you would just like to find out more information or you are ready to volunteer, please do get in touch with us

STUDY FINDINGS

We will post summaries of all findings here as the studies progress. We’ll have some interesting information to let you know about very soon.

Thank you to all of you that have filled in our questionnaires so far. We’ve had a great response from those of you who have recently had a baby. We’re analysing the results now and will post a summary here soon.

We’re still open for midwives to fill in their questionnaire. Feel free to share the link if you would like to.

STUDY FINDINGS UPDATE – JANUARY 2022

Thank you to all of you who’ve recently had a baby and who filled in the questionnaire – nearly 600 of you from all over England. And all of the midwives too! 

 

We’ve recently presented some of the  findings, with a focus on eating fish in pregnancy, at a conference for the UK Nutrition Society in London:

Beasant L, Ingram J, Golding J, Cade J, Taylor CM (2022) Fish consumption in relation to national advice in pregnant women in England. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 81 (OCE1), E15 

Click here

 

We’ve also had a look at the findings from the midwives’ questionnaire so far and are going to be presenting our results at the Royal College of Midwives Education and Research Conference in 2022.

Beasant L, Ingram J, Tonks R, Taylor CM (2022) Providing guidance on foods to avoid or limit during pregnancy by midwives in England. RCM Education and Research Conference MIDIRS Supplement 2022, p. 39

Click here

 

STUDY FINDINGS UPDATE – MARCH 2023

And here’s our full paper on what we found from the midwives’ questionnaire.

Beasant L, Ingram J, Tonks R, Taylor CM (2023) Provision of information by midwives for pregnancy women in England on guidance on foods/drink to avoid or limit. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 23:152

Click here


STUDY FINDINGS UPDATE – OCTOBER 2023

And here’s our full paper on what we found from the women’s questionnaire on eating fish.

Beasant L, Ingram J, Taylor CM (2023) Fish consumption during pregnancy in relation to national guidance in England in a mixed methods study: the PEAR Study. Nutrients 15(14), 3217 doi: 10.3390/nu15143217

Click here

full

CONTACT US

We aim to respond to all PEAR study enquires as quickly as possible, but please bear with us if there is a slight delay. We will typically reply to contacts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (post may not reach us for some time).

Thank you for your interest in the study

Best wishes from the PEAR Study team 

The Pear Study

Centre for Academic Child Health
Bristol Medical School
University of Bristol
Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Rd
Bristol BS8 2PS

07590 695658

Find out more about volunteering for the Pear Study:

© The Pear Study, University of Bristol – Design by oakshed.co.uk