Asthma is the most common medical condition in pregnancy, affecting more than 12% of pregnant women in Australia. Women with asthma have an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight and hospitalisation of the newborn. We are a multi-disciplinary team of researchers looking at how asthma can be better managed during pregnancy in order to improve health outcomes for both mothers with asthma, and their babies.

 

The Breathing for Life Trial (BLT) is a multicentre randomised trial of an asthma management strategy among pregnant women. This trial investigates birth outcomes for the newborn baby as well as respiratory and developmental outcomes in infancy and childhood.

 

A total of 1200 pregnant women with asthma participated in the trial between 2013 and 2020 in Newcastle, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. We continue to follow the developmental and lung health outcomes of the children born to these women at preschool and school age as well as monitoring growth and nutritional factors yearly from 2 years of age.

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