Dr Christina Hayward PhD.

International Federation of Placenta Associations

The Physiological Society

Society of Endocrinology

British Society of Developmental Biology

Obesity, adipokines and blood vessel function in pregnancy.

Influence of maternal growth on placental growth, development and function in teenage pregnancies.

Wire Myography

Adipocyte and stromal-vascular cell isolation

Cell and tissue culture

Placental tissue fragment uptake 

RNA extraction and RT-QPCR

Immunohistochemistry

I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Medical Molecular Biology from Cardiff University in 2006 and went on to study for PhD at the University of Manchester in the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Group. Supervised by Dr Rebecca Jones and Dr Susan Greenwood and funded by Action Medical Research, my project investigated the influence of continued maternal growth on placental growth, development and function in teenage pregnancies.

Teenagers are susceptible to delivering small-for-gestational-age (SGA) or growth restricted infants. These pregnancy outcomes are associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity, and an increased risk of chronic health problams in later life, including cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.  Previous studies implicated young maternal age and continued skeletal growth as potential influencing factors in teenage pregnancy. My PhD focused on delineating the mechanisms underlying teenagers' susceptibilty to SGA birth. My studies, which followed on from the About Teenage Eating (ATE) study, demonstrated that placental nutrient transport capacity was inherently reduced in teenagers compared to adults; however, pregnant teenagers who continued to grow were able to compensate by up-regulating amino acid transport across the placenta, and consequently delivered larger infants. These studies also indicated that growing teenagers may have a maternal hormonal milieu that is conducive to fetal growth by stimulating nutrient transport. Further studies are ongoing to investigate other potential underlying mechanisms, including poor nutritional status, and identify potential therapeutic strategies to improve pregnancy outcome in the teenage population.

I was awarded my PhD in 2010 and obtained a three year postdoctural research associate position in the Maternal and Fetal Health Group working with Dr Mark Wareing, Elizabeth Cowley, Dr Tracey Mills and Professor Colin Sibley. I am currently investigating whether the increased incidence of pre-eclampsia in women with raised body mass index (BMI) is associated with altered omental adipokine secretion and promotion of maternal vascular endothelial dysfunction. This research is being funded by the British Heart Foundation.

PhD Medicine
The University of Manchester, UK

BSc (Hons) Medical Molecular Biology
Cardiff University, UK

Professor Colin P. Sibley, Dr Mark Wareing, Dr Rebecca L. Jones, Dr Susan L. Greenwood, Elizabeth Cowley, Dr Tracey Mills 
Maternal and Fetal Health Research Group, The University of Manchester, UK 

Professor Philip N. Baker
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Alberta, Canada