Project Purpose: Timely registration rates with lead maternity carers (LMC) for Māori are low, and research is critically needed to investigate methods of reaching Māori women sooner and to encourage engagement with health professionals. The project aims to trial a novel intervention delivered by community health workers (CHW) who will find pregnant Māori women that have not yet registered with an LMC, deliver key pregnancy health messages and smoking cessation support, and facilitate early registration with an LMC; and assess the acceptability of the intervention to women and CHWs.

The programme of work to be carried out: The student will be involved in the initial set up phase of the project. A pre and post quasi-experimental trial is to be used in matched communities. The research will involve participatory action, i.e. the CHWs will not just be participants, but will also be involved in developing the intervention and all aspects of the study. CHWs will be recruited through researcher networks and be invited to participate. Each CHW will identify and recruit women in the Whangarei and Glen Innes areas and deliver the intervention. The main outcome is to facilitate registration with a LMC. Each intervention community will have a matched control community, with selection based on a high proportion of Māori women of child-bearing age and people of low economic status. In the control communities no intervention will take place.

Day to day nature of the work

• Key stakeholder consultation e.g. with CHWs
• Preparation of ethics application
• Preparation of project documents and resources.

Skills the student will learn

1. Communication skills e.g. with project stakeholders
2. Questionnaire design
3. Project resource and document design
4. Ethics application process.