Pre-eclampsia is a hypertensive disorder affecting up to 8% of pregnancies. After pre-eclampsia, women are at increased risk of cognitive problems, and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disorders. These sequelae could result from microvascular dysfunction persisting after pre-eclampsia. This study will explore differences in cerebral and myocardial microvascular function between women after pre-eclampsia and women after normotensive gestation. We hypothesise that pre-eclampsia alters cerebral and myocardial microvascular functions, which in turn are related to diminished cognitive and cardiac performance.

The cross-sectional ‘DEcreased Cognitive functiON, NEurovascular CorrelaTes and myocardial changes in women with a history of pre-eclampsia’ (DECONNECT) pilot study includes women after pre-eclampsia and controls after normotensive pregnancy between 6 months and 20 years after gestation. We recruit women from the Queen of Hearts study, a study investigating subclinical heart failure after pre-eclampsia. Neuropsychological tests are employed to assess different cognitive domains, including attention, processing speed, and cognitive control. Cerebral images are recorded using a 7 Tesla MRI to assess blood–brain barrier integrity, perfusion, blood flow, functional and structural networks, and anatomical dimensions. Cardiac images are recorded using a 3 Tesla MRI to assess cardiac perfusion, strain, dimensions, mass, and degree of fibrosis. We assess the effect of a history of pre-eclampsia using multivariable regression analyses.

This study is approved by the Ethics Committee of Maastricht University Medical Centre (METC azM/UM, NL47252.068.14). Knowledge dissemination will include scientific publications, presentations at conferences and public forums, and social media.

NCT02347540.

To determine whether integrated maternity care is associated with reduced preterm births (PTB) and fewer small-for-gestational-age infants (SGA), and whether its implementation leads to a reduction of secondary care consultations.

Retrospective study.

Integrated maternity care organisation in the southwestern region of the Netherlands.

All singleton pregnancies (≥24 weeks) within integrated maternity care organisation Annature between 2015 and 2020.

Implementation of a shared maternity record in primary and secondary care.

Data of 20 818 women were derived from patient records and from the Netherlands Perinatal Registry. Intervention was the introduction of integrated maternity care in January 2018. Through multivariate logistic regression and segmented regression analysis we assessed the combined prevalence of SGA and PTB (SGA-PTB) before (2015–2017), and after the intervention (2018–2020). Regional rates were contrasted with nationwide rates (n=782 176).

SGA-PTB prevalence and mean number of secondary care consultations per pregnancy.

SGA-PTB prevalence declined from 618/3443 (17.9%) in 2015 to 560/3501 (16.0%) in 2017 to 507/3459 (14.7%) in 2020 (p

Our results suggest that implementation of integrated maternity care was associated with reduced PTBs and/or low birth weight, and fewer secondary care consultations. These encouraging findings were observed in a less favourable sociodemographic profile and should be confirmed in other regions with sufficiently large populations, and the possibility to test individual components of integrated maternity care.