This project investigated:

1. How sleep in late pregnancy might affect a woman’s birth experience, and
2. The relationship between sleep across the perinatal period and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The study recruited 766 non-Māori women and 423 Māori women and was guided by key principles from Kaupapa Māori research philosophy. These include Māori participation and control at all stages of the research; appropriate collection of ethnicity data; and statistical methods that seek to allow for possible explanations of any differences in findings between Māori and non-Māori women in the study.

Many of the women in the E Moe, Māmā study have stayed with us and are now a part of the Moe Kura cohort, which is following these families as the children grow.

Funding: Health Research Council

Collaborators: Dr Mark Huthwaite, Department of Psychological Medicine, Otago University; Professor Kathy Lee, University of California, San Francisco