Growing Up In Digital Europe (GUIDE) is the first pan-European, input-harmonised longitudinal cohort study on children and young people’s wellbeing. Running from 2026 to 2029, GUIDEPREP2 will prepare the launch of GUIDE's first survey wave in 2028. GUIDEPREP2's objective is to establish the scientific, legal, financial and governance foundations needed for GUIDE to become a sustainable research infrastructure delivering unique longitudinal data on child wellbeing and environments across diverse national, cultural and policy contexts. GUIDE addresses a critical gap in the European data landscape: no existing survey infrastructure systematically tracks children’s lives across countries. Without such evidence, governments cannot effectively monitor inequalities, design responsive policies, or evaluate progress towards the European Child Guarantee, the European Pillar of Social Rights, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the EU’s digital and wellbeing strategies. This proposal involves a consortium of 31 partners in 25 countries, bringing together a range of scientific and technical expertise as well as further extending the geographic reach of GUIDE. GUIDEPREP2 will achieve its objectives by consolidating the GUIDE Central Hub, advancing the pathway towards ERIC legal status, and securing national commitments and financial sustainability. It will operationalise governance and institutional policies, implement GDPR- and FAIR-compliant data management, and embed GUIDE in the European Open Science Cloud and wider RI landscape. Scientific consolidation will refine survey instruments, sampling and fieldwork protocols, ensuring harmonisation and quality control across countries. Structured stakeholder engagement with governments, funders, researchers and civil society will anchor GUIDE in the European Research Area, laying the foundations for sustainability and maximising long-term impact.

O projeto consiste na colaboração entre a Associação Portuguesa pelos Direitos da Mulher na Gravidez e Parto (APDMGP) e o Laboratório de Estudos Sociais sobre o Nascimento (nascer.pt) - CIES-Iscte, para o desenvolvimento da 3.ª edição do Inquérito às Experiências de Parto em Portugal (2020–2025).  As atividades a desenvolver no âmbito do acordo incluem: consultoria científica na definição do guião do inquérito e do processo de amostragem; construção do guião de inquérito; apoio à divulgação do inquérito e à recolha de respostas; análise e tratamento dos dados recolhidos; e produção do relatório final do estudo.  

Over-medicalisation and disrespect in maternity and childbirth care have been identified by international research as an urgent global public health topic (WHO 2014, Simonovic 2019, Council of Europe 2019). The IPOV-RESPECTFUL CARE project intends to bring attention to obstetric violence and respectful maternity and childbirth care by implementing a concrete tool—the International Platform on Obstetric Violence—to bridge academic research and public policy, training for health professionals, women’s perspectives and public engagement on the matter. The Platform will be an innovative, international, interdisciplinary, intersectoral and cross-cultural digital and interactive tool for producing, sharing and transferring knowledge, systematising and exchanging good practices, acquiring skills and planning gender -based innovative training packages on respectful maternity and childbirth care among health professionals, health training managers, decision makers, researchers, women and all of society. To achieve these goals, a network of 39 breakthrough experts, from 19 participating organisations and 9 countries (universities, research centres, civil organisations and health maternity care institutions) will be established.

ABRIL MATER is a project that aims to explore the relationship between the social and political changes ushered in by the Revolution of 1974 and thetransformations occurred in the field of motherhood and childbirth in Portugal. To this end, the research will start by documenting the events that marked thecountry's history in the 1960s to 1980s, in order to, from there, reconstitute the evolution of maternal healthcare assistance in the country, and chart the path takenconcerning the protection of the rights of women and children.Endowed with an exploratory nature, the project pilots a plural methodology, of a qualitative orientation, based on the combination of archives analysis – somepersonal (such as diaries, correspondence, photographic records, etc.), others public (press archives, historical documents, etc.) – with the analysis of interviewsabout experiences of motherhood in the periods that preceded and followed the April Revolution of 1974.Incident on a period of profound and rapid social transformations in Portugal, such as those happening before and following the Revolution of April of 1974, theABRIL MATER project will reveal how the portrayals and practices of motherhood are related to the cultural, political and social environments in which they emerge,being thus subject to processes of reconfiguration. Along this path, this project proposes to find insights on the diversity of circumstances, values and beliefs thatoverlay practices of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, also throwing light on particular motherhood experiences, such as those endured by women and familiesin the context of clandestinity.Based on the collection of archives and testimonials, the research will not be limited to the compilation and examination of pre-existing files and records. On the50th anniversary of the April Revolution, it is expected that the project will culminate in the creation of original archives and contents, which, in addition tocontributing to the preservation of...

Hosted by nascer.pt -The Laboratory of Social Studies on Childirth (CIES-IUL), this research intends to explore the childbirth activism in different European contexts. Particurlaly, it is proposed to study the emergence and ways of action of social movements advocating for the humanization of childbirth and the womens rights in pregnancy and childbirth in Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Poland. This selection of countries aims to ensure not only the geographic diversity of the analysis, but also the plurality of socio-demographic characteristics of the contexts, the access to perinatal data, the diversity of birth assistance models and the uniqueness of the organizations.  The methodology includes, for each case study, documentary analysis, colection and analysis of statistical data, interviews and participant observation.  

nascer.pt - the Laboratory for the Social Studies on Childbirth is a permanent research unit, launched in 2017 and hosted by CIES-IUL. Its aim is to foster knowledge about the conditions and characteristics of childbirth in Portugal, to contribute to the consolidation of the Sociology of childbirth and, at the same time, to develop synergies between structures and multidisciplinary approaches in the study of childbirth, both at national and international level. Through the production and dissemination of scientific information, nascer.pt comes to improve the discussion around policies, practices and paradigms of the childbirth.

Babies Born Better is an international online survey on childbirth experiences. It is an output of the COST Action IS 0907 "Childbirth Cultures, Concerns, and Consequences: Creating a dynamic EU framework for optimal maternity care" and it is currently coordinated by an International Steering Committee. The survey is available in more than 23 languages, having obtained around 40,000 responses in each edition. In Portugal, data is managed and analysed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University Institute of Lisbon: Mário Santos (CIES-IUL), Helena Carvalho (CIES-IUL), Marta Matos (CIS-IUL), Sónia Pintassilgo (CIES-IUL), and Dulce Neves (CIES-IUL). 

Num contexto onde o número de filhos por casal é cada vez menor e onde os nascimentos ocorrem em idades mais avançadas dos pais e mães, a decisão de ter um filho parece estar sujeita a maiores exigências e pressões sociais. Toda a cultura está dominada por um ideal de maternidade que vai variando segundo as épocas. Segundo Badinter (2010), à medida que os valores naturalistas vão renovando protagonismo na sociedade contemporânea, mais exigente e complexa se vai tornando a experiência materna. Este projecto pretende contribuir para a problematização do fenómeno de "neotradicionalismo" associado à experiência de ser mãe (Stone, 2007). Adotando uma metodologia plural, a pesquisa incidirá sobre os contextos de Portugal e Espanha para perceber que fatores macroestruturais promovem a adesão ao modelo de maternidade natural e quais os efeitos deste fenómeno sobre as relações de género ao nível social e das relações interpessoais.