The Northern Sweden Maternity cohort, at the University Hospital in Umeå, Sweden, was established in 1975. The purpose was originally research on systemic infections.
The participants are pregnant women from Västerbotten. These women have attended a maternity healthcare clinic in the region during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Blood samples (serum) are drawn and are shipped to Umeå University Hospital, where they are analysed for systemic infections and then stored at -20° C. The cohort contains over 126,000 serum samples from 91,000 pregnant women (August 2013).
The design of a study can be discussed with Åsa Ågren at the Biobank Research Unit before a request for data and samples is sent to Region Västerbotten.
