Welcome to the BASELINE Study

BASELINE is the first Irish birth cohort study. A birth cohort study is one in which babies are followed from birth and studied to determine why some babies go on to develop disease, whilst others remain healthy. There are a number of birth cohort studies worldwide, but few, if any of them will have such detailed information about the babies from before they are even born, way back to the first weeks of pregnancy.

The BASELINE study is a vital national resource (every country needs its own specific data) and will be a mine of critical information about Irish children and their health and illness for years to come It is the first time that researchers will have detailed information about a baby’s environment, including their mother’s health, their environment in the womb, over the first few months of life and their subsequent growth, health and development.

The BASELINE study has been made possible by the important research currently taking place in the Cork University Maternity Hospital; the SCOPE study. The SCOPE study is currently recruiting 3000 first time mothers to gain very important information about mothers from early pregnancy. This will be used to develop ways of predicting which mothers are at high risk of pre-eclampsia, pre-term birth and poor fetal growth. The information gathered by the SCOPE study provides a unique platform for us to collect important information about babies as well as their mothers. We wish to study these infants as they grow and develop in a landmark follow on study. This follow on study is called the BASELINE study.