Making the decision to start a family can be a joyous and exciting time. But for women with chronic kidney disease, the decision can be complicated and risky.

“Can I have a baby? Should I have a baby? And what risk does pregnancy pose to my baby, my kidneys and my health?”

The answers to these questions can be difficult to find, and in some cases are provided too late, putting both mother and baby at risk of complications such as preterm birth, high blood pressure, and the deterioration of kidney function. Dr Nishanta Tangirala (pictured above right with Professor Helen Siobhan Marshall AM) is a Consultant Nephrologist, Obstetric Medicine Fellow, and WCH Foundation Masters by Research scholarship recipient working with the Pregnancy Kidney Research Australia group. She hopes to answer these important questions so that clinicians can better support mothers and their families when making this life-changing decision.

The lack of research in this space means there is little guidance for clinicians caring for women with chronic kidney disease who are planning pregnancy. Dr Tangirala’s project will look at the decision-making process for mothers and clinicians embarking on this journey, with a particular focus on the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who are more likely to live with chronic kidney disease. She will also investigate decision-making aids for women with chronic kidney disease embarking on their pregnancy journey, and the best timing and type of delivery in women with kidney transplants.

Dr Tangirala says, “Ultimately, my research will improve the evidence base for pre-pregnancy counselling and management, informing new policies and models of care for safer pregnancy planning and parenthood in this population.”

The generous support of the WCH Foundation community means that women with chronic kidney disease, alongside their families and clinicians, will be empowered to make evidence-informed decisions about the best and safest way to achieve motherhood.

South Australia has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world. Even more concerning is that more South Australian children end up in hospital due to asthma than in any other part of Australia.

Associate Professor Carson-Chahhoud of the Women’s and Children’s Health Network and her team were awarded 2023 WCH Foundation Bloom Research Program funding for the project titled ‘Clinical trial to evaluate a digital self-management and mental health intervention for young people with asthma and their families’. She and her team hope to improve children’s self-management of asthma using an artificial intelligence-based mobile app.

Over the past nine years, Associate Professor Carson-Chahhoud and a team of clinicians, researchers, policy makers, asthmatics, their carers and key community stakeholders have partnered to co-design prototypes for asthma self-management apps. They have demonstrated the acceptability of their prototypes, and now WCH Foundation Bloom Research Program funding will allow them to develop these prototypes into a single app and test its effect on asthma symptoms. How well this app works will be determined through a rigorous randomised controlled trial involving asthma patients under the care of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and the wider South Australian community.

Ultimately, if found to be effective, this project has the potential to reduce hospitalisations and health care expenditure and improve the lives of children living with asthma, and their families.

Dr Shagufta Perveen, Dr Rebecca Perry, Associate Professor Kristin Carson-Chahhoud, the Honourable Chris Picton MP, Dr Andrew Tai and Michael Luchich at the 2023 Bloom Research Program awards night.

If you would like to know more about this research as it is undertaken, along with the other research projects we fund, join our research mailing list by emailing us.