
Professor Jenny Ingram
B.Sc.(Soton.), Ph.D.(Bristol)
Expertise
Research work in maternal and child health, particularly breastfeeding to understand and improve breastfeeding practices; the impact of tongue-tie; infant sleep practices; and enhance family-centred care in neonatal units.
Current positions
Professor of Maternal and Infant Health
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
With a background in animal behaviour, my current work in the field of human infant feeding and maternal and child health is known internationally. Projects have aimed to understand and improve breastfeeding practices, the impact of tongue-tie for breastfeeding women, evaluate breastfeeding peer support interventions, and family-centred care in neonatal units. Internationally recognised tools to improve assessment of breastfeeding difficulties associated with tongue-tie for health professional use in the care of mothers and infants include: The Bristol Breastfeeding Assessment Tool (BBAT), Bristol Tongue Assessment Tool (BTAT) and TABBY (tongue-tie and breastfed babies) tool. These tools are used in 20 countries and translated into 13 languages for clinical use.
Neonatal care projects have produced the ‘Train-to-Home’ (TTH) parent materials and a staff training package to implement family-centred discharge planning for infants in neonatal care units (available on the SW Neonatal Network website: www.swneonatalnetwork.co.uk/train-to-home.) The Coolcuddle studies are exploring the effects of parents cuddling their babies undergoing cooling therapy (for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE)) and embedding the CoolCuddle intervention into neonatal intensive care units.
Alongside the infant health work, I have provided qualitative methodology expertise as a team science co-applicant for 19 NIHR funded projects. In Child Health these include children’s respiratory infections, child injury prevention work, infant sleep, childhood diabetes and sexual health of young people. Maternal Health studies have focussed on depression in pregnancy, social distancing in the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy.
From 2008 - 2018, I also led the Bristol site of the NIHR Research Design Service -SW.
Neonatal care projects have produced the ‘Train-to-Home’ (TTH) parent materials and a staff training package to implement family-centred discharge planning for infants in neonatal care units (available on the SW Neonatal Network website: www.swneonatalnetwork.co.uk/train-to-home.) The Coolcuddle studies are exploring the effects of parents cuddling their babies undergoing cooling therapy (for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE)) and embedding the CoolCuddle intervention into neonatal intensive care units.
Alongside the infant health work, I have provided qualitative methodology expertise as a team science co-applicant for 19 NIHR funded projects. In Child Health these include children’s respiratory infections, child injury prevention work, infant sleep, childhood diabetes and sexual health of young people. Maternal Health studies have focussed on depression in pregnancy, social distancing in the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy.
From 2008 - 2018, I also led the Bristol site of the NIHR Research Design Service -SW.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Process evaluation of URApp: a digital intervention to support adherence to bladder training in paediatric continence clinics
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/03/2024 to 28/02/2025
CoolCuddle2 Process Evaluation
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Description
We have developed and refinied a CoolCuddle intervention, which enables parents to hold their baby safely while still maintaining cooling therapy. In addition to measuring a range of physiological measures…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/07/2022 to 31/10/2023
Preventing Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy: an assessment and planning tool for families at increased risk
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/09/2021 to 31/12/2022
8072 NBT: COVID-19 Clinicians Cohort (CoCCo) Study: Treatment Preferences And Needs
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
15/01/2021 to 14/10/2021
Find Your Village: involving children and young people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in improvements to local neighbourhood geography
Principal Investigator
Description
Project involving children and young people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in improvements to local neighbourhood geographyManaging organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/01/2021 to 31/03/2021
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
04/03/2024Adherence to the national guidance on foods and drinks to limit or avoid during pregnancy in England
Public Health Nutrition
A Risk Assessment and Planning Tool to Prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy:
JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Breast hypoplasia markers among women who report insufficient milk production
PLoS ONE
Cooling and physiology during parent cuddling infants with neonatal encephalopathy in usual care
Acta Paediatrica
Embedding the ‘CoolCuddle’ intervention for infants undergoing therapeutic hypothermia for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy in NICU: an evaluation using normalisation process theory
BMJ Open