The Follow-up Study

What are we doing?

In the Gomeroi Gaaynggal Follow-up Study we are recruiting women and their babies who have previously participated in the pregnancy study and catching up with them throughout the first 3 years of their babies’ life.

From mums, we collect:

• Blood and urine samples.

• Body measurements.

• Different surveys about about changes in their household (including income, employment), cigarette smoke exposure, stress, discrimination, mental health, general health status and nutrition (their diet).

From bubs, we collect:

• Urine samples.

• Body measurements.

• Ask mums/carers about their child’s hearing and speech, health and health history and what their child eats at different stages of growth and development, such as whether their baby drinks breast milk or formula and what solid foods are in their child’s diet.

Why is this important?

Participants have been helping us to understand how Aboriginal Australian babies grow and develop during pregnancy. Now we would like to understand more about how Aboriginal Australian babies grow and develop in childhood and how pregnancy affects mum’s health later in life.

Our research aims to approach Indigenous health as a whole, looking at how lots of different causes of stress can work together to affect health in the community. We know that many chronic diseases like kidney disease and diabetes begin in the womb when mum is pregnant. This study aims to better understand what action is needed to provide a long and healthy life for Aboriginal Australian mothers and their babies.

We are working with the community to gather data and using this data to develop community-based programs to provide a healthy start to life for all Aboriginal Australian children.