The ORIGINS Project is the largest study of its kind in Australia, following 10,000 children, from their time in the womb, over a decade to improve child and adult health.
The unique long-term study is one of the most comprehensive studies of pregnant women and their families in Australia, recruiting families who are receiving pregnancy care or planning to deliver their baby at Joondalup Health Campus, as well as families from the Joondalup and Wanneroo communities.
ORIGINS is following the progress of pregnant women, their partners and babies for the first five years of the baby’s life, and beyond, with an increasing understanding that an individual’s lifetime health and disease may be programmed at a very early stage – while a child is still in the womb.
Our researchers are not only investigating the prevention of disease but also looking to discover how every child and family can reach their full potential.
The total ORIGINS population will consist of more than 20,000 individuals within family units - including mothers, partners, children and siblings.
The ORIGINS Project
The ORIGINS Project
Team
ORIGINS Project projects
Reports and Findings
Probiotic supplementation in neonates and long-term gut colonisation: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials
Probiotic supplementation in the neonatal period results in improved gut colonisation with probiotic bacteria in the short term. There is limited information on the long-term sustainability of this colonisation.
Published research Early Childhood Development Nutrition ORIGINSNature Connection: Providing a Pathway from Personal to Planetary Health
The vast and growing challenges for human health and all life on Earth require urgent and deep structural changes to the way in which we live. Broken relationships with nature are at the core of both the modern health crisis and the erosion of planetary health. A declining connection to nature has been implicated in the exploitative attitudes that underpin the degradation of both physical and social environments and almost all aspects of personal physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Published research ORIGINS Mental health Physical activityPerinatal Women’s Perspectives of, and Engagement in, Digital Emotional Well-Being Training: Mixed Methods Study
Psychological distress in the early postpartum period can have long-lasting deleterious effects on a mother's well-being and negatively affect her infant's development. Intervention approaches based in contemplative practices such as mindfulness and loving-kindness and compassion are intended to alleviate distress and cultivate well-being and can be delivered effectively as digital mental health interventions.
Published research ORIGINS Subsite: ORIGINS Project Mental health Maternal healthMaternal prebiotic supplementation during pregnancy and lactation modifies the microbiome and short chain fatty acid profile of both mother and infant
Improving maternal gut health in pregnancy and lactation is a potential strategy to improve immune and metabolic health in offspring and curtail the rising rates of inflammatory diseases linked to alterations in gut microbiota. Here, we investigate the effects of a maternal prebiotic supplement (galacto-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides), ingested daily from <21 weeks' gestation to six months' post-partum, in a double-blinded, randomised placebo-controlled trial.
Published research Breastfeeding Nutrition Nutrition in Early Life ORIGINS