The National Institutes of Health has launched PregSource, a research project that aims to improve knowledge of pregnancy by collecting information directly from pregnant women. The project will explore physical and emotional aspects of pregnancy, labor and delivery and will identify distinct challenges faced by subgroups of women, such as those with physical disabilities. By offering a more comprehensive picture of the pregnancy experience — from normal pregnancies to those complicated by disease or other factors — PregSource promises to inform strategies for improving maternal care in the United States.

“PregSource benefits everyone—the participants, their healthcare providers and the research community,” said Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which leads the project. “Women can access free and reliable pregnancy information, and they can share their PregSource charts with their healthcare providers. The project also will generate much-needed data to help researchers address long-held questions about maternal and fetal health.”

Women who sign up for PregSource use online surveys to share what they are experiencing, and they can compare these experiences to those of other participants. Over the course of their pregnancies, women can chart changes to their weight, sleep, mood, morning sickness and physical activity. In addition, they can access informational resources developed by experts on pregnancy, childbirth and child development. PregSource also enables women to track their experiences after childbirth to help determine if any outcomes, such as heart disease, can be linked to events during pregnancy.

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