Aims: The aim of this body of work is to develop a greater understanding of which infants are born needing support after birth and identify high risk infants who may benefit from interventions or changes in practice. This project also aims to provide greater understanding of these risks for women, from which they can make informed choices for their own births.

To do this we anticipate three components to the project:

1) Modeling of birth condition.

2) Gene polymorphisms

3) Placental examination

A final analysis will be designed after the 3 components are complete whereby a comprehensive model of poor condition at birth is derived.

Summary of proposed project: Through these three arms we hope to understand the processes through which infants are likely to be born in poor condition, and identify points at which the risk could be reduced or prevented.