Better outcomes for moderate-to-late preterm babies

Although he passed away in 2003, The Jubilee Trust founded by Lionel has supported a range of projects over the past two decades that have helped improve understanding of how to better detect, intervene and improve the lives of children with disabilities like cerebral palsy.

Up until now, most research on preterm babies has focused on those born many weeks early. However, the Trust is now funding the MoPED study – Moderate-to-late Preterm Babies Early Brain Development – which will concentrate on those born between 32 to 36 weeks who represent more than 80 percent of all preterm babies. 

“We’re interested in the moderate late preterm babies because they don’t have any routine follow-up, they don’t have any routine brain-scanning, they are assumed to be okay, but they are at increased risk of a number of disabilities of which cerebral palsy is one,” says Principal Investigator, Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding. 

Co-ordination and balance problems, previously described as ‘clumsy kids’, are among the broader impairment challenges, along with behavioural problems and cognitive and language delays as children get older. 

Which is why the current study, led by Liggins Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr Caroline Walker, is conducting follow-up research with the development of a two-hour school-aged assessment to check how the six to eight-year-old children are doing later in life. 

“Most of them are going to be absolutely fine and within what we would expect for a child that age,” says Caroline. “But for some of them, things are not going to be so easy.” 

A key benefit of The Jubilee Trust funding has been the ability to leverage additional support from the Neurological Foundation and the Health Research Council so that researchers can take fresh MRI scans to compare with those taken at birth and when the babies were due to be born. 

The overall objective, says Jane, is to identify who is at greater risk of later problems so they can receive the right support early on “so that we can provide reassurance to most, and direct resources to those who are at greater risk”. 

The MoPED study has enrolled 165 children from a previous study, and Caroline says they’re “a very motivated cohort” because they want more developmental information about their child.

“The gap between seeing a child at two and seeing a child between six and eight years is a long time,” she says. “But we have an amazing follow-up team here at the Liggins Institute who really build relationships with these participants.”

While 2025 has been about starting the school-age study rather than establishing any clear-cut findings, Jane says that the findings from previous MRI scans taken at birth are “very interesting” and could help clarify findings in cases where babies have non-accidental injuries from abuse. 

“It is entirely left field and not what the study was about,” she says. “But we’ve been able to report this is what happens in these babies’ brains after they’re born, and that’s going to be helpful for people in the future to distinguish what normally happens from something that is not normal.” 

In the short term, Caroline says “we have impacts on families every day and every week. We either reassure them that their child is developing completely as expected, or actually, maybe we should do some further monitoring or check in with your doctor – or perhaps a referral is necessary”.

Having the continuity of funding from The Jubilee Trust for the school-age assessment is also “tremendously important”, according to Jane, especially when they’re still awaiting data from the previous two-year study. 

“Having funding that isn’t contingent upon having finished the last phase is absolutely critical in longitudinal studies because you have to keep going when the children are growing up.” 

The MoPED study is also in keeping with The Jubilee Trust’s longstanding commitment to fund world-class research that helps deliver better outcomes to the physically disabled community worldwide.

“We have the potential to identify changes and potentially predictors and outcomes that will help millions of these babies around the world,” says Jane. “They’re a huge group, and they’ve had very little focus on them. It’s time we did.”

In addition to providing opportunities to recruit and train the next generation of researchers, Caroline says that working alongside a globally respected neonatologist like Jane is an “incredible” opportunity.

“It’s such a purposeful work, trying to understand how we can improve the lives of these incredibly vulnerable babies – that’s a pretty rewarding day at the office.