Researchers believe a standard approach to studying placental disorders of pregnancy will improve future studies, guidelines, and treatments.

The Preeclampsia Foundation and Preeclampsia Foundation Canada joined colleagues to help develop a standard method to study and understand the factors that may increase the risk of pregnancy complications related to the placenta. Our work was also guided by people with lived experience to help make sure research reflects what matters to the people it affects most.

Placenta problems during pregnancy can lead to complications like preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), prematurity, or stillbirth. Our goal was to help develop a standard method to identify and understand various risk factors. We searched several medical databases and other sources to find research studies, within the past 10 years, about these pregnancy problems. We looked at risk factors that were connected to these pregnancy complications involving the placenta and how reliable the research was. Risk factors are complicated and include both clinical factors and environmental factors. Our work was also guided by people with lived experience to ensure patient voices were included.

“Our conceptual framework approach was further informed by patient partner engagement through the “Pathways to pre-eclampsia: A partnered approach to educational materials and knowledge translation” initiative with the Preeclampsia Foundation and the Preeclampsia Foundation Canada. Patient partners provide invaluable input by guiding and informing research activities through their lived experience, and ensuring the research activities are relevant, representative, and meaningful to patient and public audiences. Patient partners included former patients, survivors, and condition experts, and were invited through patient and community networks at the REACH BC Registry and the Preeclampsia Foundation. Six patient partners were selected based on availability and to ensure diversity of perspectives (ethnic, regional, occupational, age), and were compensated for their time. We convened seven meetings with patient partners between January and September 2022. Meetings included reviewing the basics of research and patient- oriented research, discussing the project, identifying group goals and objectives, and reviewing existing evidence on the causal pathways and attributable risk in the development of preeclampsia. Based on engagement with patient partners, we revised the four quadrants used by Hiatt et al. into three areas of focus for the literature searches: medical histories, social determinants, and biomarkers. Nutrition was also highlighted by patient partners and within the Preeclampsia Registry as an area of interest, which was further explored as part of social determinants.”

Take home message: We utilized patient partner engagement to help develop a standard way to assess the importance and inter-relatedness of risk factors for the placental disorders of pregnancy like preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), prematurity, or stillbirth. Using a standard, reliable method when studying pregnancy complications can help plan future studies and create new guidelines. It may also help providers give more consistent education and advice no matter where patients and families live.

Citation:

Terteel Elawad, Mai-Lei Woo Kinshella, Ellie Stokes, Kelly Pickerill, Elisa Dalle Piagge, Marianne Vidler, Ella Stanley, Marie-Laure Volvert, Jeffrey N. Bone, Helen Elwell, Hiten D. Mistry, Violet Mateljan, Eleni Tsigas, Veronique Filippi, Peter von Dadelszen, Hannah Blencowe, Laura A. Magee, PRECISE Network. “Standardised Methods for Developing Conceptual Frameworks for Placental Disorders of Pregnancy: Pre-Eclampsia and Stillbirth,” BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology 133, no. S4 (2026): S8–S14, https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.18083.