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Enhancing Long-term Maternal Outcomes

 Research
Our current members
How does the way a baby is born affect the mother’s health, work, and wellbeing years later? With ELMO, we link perinatal, general practitioner and national data to find out.

ELMO (Enhancing Long-term Maternal Outcomes) is a data-driven research project that investigates the long-term effects of different modes of birth (for example instrumental vaginal birth or caesarean section) on maternal outcomes. The project brings together datasets from perinatal care (Perined), general practitioner research networks across the Netherlands (RNFM, FaMe-Net, AHON), and national sources like Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and VEKTIS in the Data-InfrAstructure for ParEnts and childRen (DIAPER) environment of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). By linking these data, we gain unique insights into physical and psychological health, work participation, and healthcare costs up to three years postpartum.

We aim to directly inform clinical decision-making, birth planning, health economics, and care innovation.
Relevance

How our research benefits to society

What we want to achieve

With ELMO, we aim to uncover the long-term maternal consequences of birth interventions. Our ambition is to inform national guidelines, support early identification of postpartum problems in general practitioner care, and guide shared decision-making during birth planning.

How we involve our stakeholders

This project is developed in collaboration with midwifery, obstetric, and general practitioner care providers from nationwide research consortia, as well as public health stakeholders including the RIVM (DIAPER), CBS, and VEKTIS. Additionally, the patient representative organisation Buikencollectief has been involved from an early stage to ensure that the research reflects patient-relevant priorities and that no essential topics are overlooked. Through this inclusive approach, we aim to align our outcomes with both societal needs and clinical relevance.

What our impact on policy and care is

Results are expected to influence postpartum care protocols and health monitoring strategies, and support the development of risk prediction models integrated in general practitioner, midwifery and public health systems.

Timeline

  1. Finalisation of data linkage for ELMO projects

    Posted

    The data linkage for all four ELMO (Empowering Long-term Maternal Outcomes) projects was completed in May 2025. This includes integration of perinatal data (Perined), primary care data from three general practitioner research networks (RNFM, FaMe-Net, AHON), and national datasets from CBS and VEKTIS in the DIAPER environment. The resulting cohort comprises over 22,000 women who gave birth between 2014 and 2020, and more than 600,000 general practitioner contacts between 2014 and 2023.
    The linked dataset will be used to investigate the long-term physical, psychological, occupational, and economic outcomes of childbirth. We will examine how different modes of birth are associated with adverse maternal health outcomes, develop predictive models based on routine healthcare data, and explore the impact of childbirth on work participation and healthcare costs up to three years postpartum.

External members

  • Dr. Tim olde Hartman
  • Prof. dr. Jean Muris
  • Prof. dr. Jeroen Struijs

Part of

Contact

L.L. Peters
Lilian Peters Associate Professor Clinical Epidemiology, Principal Investigator

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Primary and Long-term Care
Internal postcode FA21
P.O. Box 196
9700 AD Groningen

Visiting address

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Primary and Long-term Care
Oostersingel | entrance 47 | building 50 | 2nd floor
Groningen
The Netherlands