Project description
A new toolkit for holistic maternity care
In the field of European maternity care, there is an emphasis on the significance of physical and psychological well-being. However, there is usually a lack of focus on the spiritual side of the healthcare needs of women during pregnancy and childbirth. It has been found that spiritual interventions are helpful in preventing trauma and improving resilience in mothers and newborns after giving birth, but this kind of care is rarely included in the policies of health care organisations. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SPIRIT-MOM project’s goal is to develop the first spiritual toolkit for midwives throughout Europe.
Objective
This Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, SPIRIT-MOM project, addresses a critical gap in European healthcare: the neglect of spiritual well-being in maternity services. Despite evidence linking spiritual care to reduced trauma and improved resilience, it remains absent from policy and practice. This project will develop and validate the first pan-European, co-designed Spiritual Care Toolkit to equip midwives with practical strategies for this essential aspect of holistic care.
This project addresses this gap by developing, validating, and disseminating an evidence-based, toolkit that can be individually tailored for the integration of spiritual care practices into maternity services. The methodology will employ a sequential mixed-methods design, comprising: 1) a scoping review and qualitative study with diverse women and birthing people to explore and map spiritual experiences; 2) a Delphi consensus study with ~80 experts/service users across Europe to define feasible, equitable spiritual care practices; 3) co-design and feasibility assessment of the Toolkit. This methodology ensures the output is evidence-based, woman-centered, and clinically actionable. A multidisciplinary panel of experts including midwives, obstetricians, mental health specialists, spiritual care providers, and service users will be convened to identify, refine, and validate core toolkit materials. These will include assessment guidelines, intervention strategies, staff training modules, and policy recommendations tailored to diverse healthcare settings.
SPIRIT-MOM will provide a foundational framework to transform maternity care, aligning with EU priorities on gender equality, person-centred care, and sustainable health systems. The findings will be disseminated through social media, peer-reviewed publications, a project website, policy briefs, and presentations at international conferences, to inform policy, standardize care quality, and improve quality of life for families across Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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PR1 2HE PRESTON
United Kingdom
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