The SHAPES research team at Newcastle University and Newcastle NHS Hospital Trust would like to say thank you to all participants for taking part in this study.

What have we done so far?

We started SHAPES back in April 2022 and we are delighted to announce that we recently reached our target of including 1400 pregnant participants into the SHAPES study.

So far over 1200 babies have been born and the final baby from the study is due at the end of October.

During each research visit at the 12-week scan appointment, we took 6 ultrasound measurements and 22 body shape measurements. In total we have taken 40600 measurements during this stage of the study.
This is an amazing achievement and it couldn't have been done without the support of all of you.

Prize Draw: 40 x £100 gift voucher prizes

Everyone taking part in the SHAPES study was given an option to enter into a prize draw, with a chance to win a £100 gift voucher. 40 lucky participants have now been informed and the gift vouchers have been sent out.

What’s next for the SHAPES study?

After all of the SHAPES babies have been born, we will review the routine maternity notes so we can get information about your pregnancy and how you delivered your baby. This will give us a better idea of which women and babies would benefit the most from extra care during pregnancy.

The results from this study will be used to see how well body shape measurements relate to health during pregnancy.

Follow-up study: we would love to hear from you

We would like to find out more about your experience of having the extra body shape measurements taken as part of your12-week scan appointment.

Susan Lennie is a researcher at Newcastle University and she is leading the follow-up study to understand the different perspectives and experiences of having these extra measurements taken. 

She would like to speak to 30 women who took part in the SHAPES study to learn more about what it was like for you.

We'd love it if you could share your experience, if you are interested you can email Susan to find out more: susan.lennie@newcastle.ac.uk

SHAPES-Bio study using routine blood samples

In the previous update we mentioned the extra SHAPES study, which involves using routine blood samples taken in pregnancy to see if we can identify which pregnant women would benefit most from extra care in the future.

The funding application for Shapes-Bio has now been submitted and we will find out later this year if we are successful. 

A big thank you!

Thanks again for taking part in SHAPES, we really appreciate everyone's involvement and the potential for this study to benefit pregnant women and babies in the future. We look forward to sharing more updates with you as the study progresses.

1. SHAPES Cohort Study

• Ethics approvals for research
• Can I Take Part ?
• At the Appointment
• After the Appointment
• Contact Details

2. SHAPES Individual Participant Data Study

3. Cost Effectiveness Study