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Tomasina Stacey

Award Received: 
Jean Davies Award
Project: 
Improving knowledge and awareness of health information relating to gestational diabetes within a multi-ethnic population
Year awarded: 
2020

I applied for the Jean Davies award in collaboration with midwifery colleagues from Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

They were setting up a continuity of carer team in an area of deprivation and identified that many of the women had an increased likelihood of developing gestational diabetes, but didn’t know much about it and had expressed fear of undergoing a Glucose Tolerance Test.

Based on previous work I had done with Dr Mel Cooper from Bradford University, we therefore thought of developing a more accessible way of communicating some of the key information that midwives were wanting to communicate.

Through a process of co-production with a group of (asylum seeker and refugee) women who had recently had a baby in the UK and midwives we developed a short animation to explain the basic principle of gestational diabetes and what a woman can do to keep her and her baby healthy if gestational diabetes is identified.

This animation has also been translated into Urdu and is available to access through this link: https://www.daisi-research.co.uk/. Initial feedback from midwives and service users has been very positive and the Trust are considering further translations to make it even more accessible to their population.

The project was hit by a number of challenges including COVID, staff changes and a protracted process of gaining ethical approval as we moved evaluation site, therefore we are still undergoing formal evaluation within the NHS. We will be publishing those findings as soon as they are available. 

Based on the initial success of the ‘Gestational Diabetes DAISI’ we are now developing a similar animation to help communicate health messages to reduce the risk of stillbirth. This animation is being translated into Urdu and Arabic to be available alongside the English version.

We would like to thank the Trust for their amazing flexibility in supporting our project.