Mothers-to-be living in rural India are at the centre of new research to examine how healthcare systems can better support pregnant women who migrate back to their childhood homes for childbirth.

Lancaster University's Dr Charumita Vasudev has been awarded the prestigious Wellcome Early Career Fellowship for her project, “Temporary Childbirth Migration and Reproductive Justice: Reconceptualising Continuity of Maternal and Child Healthcare in Rural India”.

Based at the University's School of Social Sciences since December 2022 as part of the Food Security for Equitable Futures team, Dr Vasudev’s wider research examines intrahousehold inequalities, food insecurity, and maternal and child health.

The five-year fellowship, worth £480,305, begins in December and will be supported by mentorship from Professor Jasmine Fledderjohann, Professor in Sociology and Social Justice.

The study follows the journeys of women who move to their natal homes – where they were born and raised – typically in their third trimester and stay there for several months postpartum in the hope of better rest and recovery in the care of natal kin, before moving back again to their marital homes.

It will draw on narratives of the 40 women alongside interviews from their key caregivers and community health workers to better understand the decision to migrate and differences in care in both natal and marital households.

Dr Vasudev said: “I'm absolutely thrilled and honoured to have received this fellowship.

“I'm really looking forward to spending the next few years at LU on research that I hope will make a genuine difference—both to maternal healthcare in rural India, and to how community health workers can be supported in delivering that care.”