MAMA Trial

The Monoclonal Antibody Medications in inflammatory Arthritis: stopping or continuing in pregnancy

The MAMA Trial is looking at whether stopping or continuing biologics in pregnancy is good or bad for women with inflammatory arthritis.

The project, funded by the NIHR, is designed to answer the question: In pregnant women with inflammatory arthritis, does continuing biological disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs ('biologics') throughout pregnancy, compared to stopping them before the third trimester result in better arthritis symptom control?

To answer this question, pregnant women at less than or equal to 28 completed weeks' gestation prescribed a regularly dosed biologic for inflammatory arthritis will be put at random into one of two groups:

• to continue their biologic throughout pregnancy
• to stop their biologic before the third trimester (28 weeks) of pregnancy, restarting no earlier than 2 weeks post-pregnancy

Women will be asked to complete a simple arthritis symptom severity questionnaire monthly via an app or in written format. After their baby is born, women will be asked to report symptoms up to 12 months post-pregnancy. Some families will be asked if they would be happy for their baby to have blood tests to check their immune response to vaccinations. Mums and babies will be followed up until 2 years post-pregnancy, to assess their general health and their baby's development.

The MAMA trial will recruit 328 women in approximately 35 obstetric units with a maternal medicine service in the 16 Maternal Medicine Networks in England over a 4 year recruitment period.

MAMA is coordinated by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit Clinical Trial Unit (NPEU CTU) at the University of Oxford and is funded by the National Institute of National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme.

People

Professor Samantha Johnson is a co-investigator on this project, leading the developmental follow-up of children at two years of age. 

• For more information please visit the MAMA Website