What is the SPRING project about?

SPRING | Supporting Pregnancy & Reproductive Health Information for Teenagers

SPRING (Supporting Pregnancy and Reproductive Health Information for teenaGers) is a school-based educational programme for senior cycle students, developed by the Pregnancy Loss Research Group at University College Cork in collaboration with teachers and TY students from St Angela's College Cork.

The programme aims to improve young people's knowledge and awareness of reproductive health, fertility, healthy pregnancy, and pregnancy loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth. These are topics that are rarely addressed in formal education, despite being experiences that many people will encounter directly or indirectly during their lives. Research has shown that adolescents commonly overestimate natural fertility and underestimate the effect of age on fertility and pregnancy outcomes, and many people first learn about miscarriage or stillbirth only after personal experience.

SPRING aims to address these gaps by providing accurate, age-appropriate information designed for delivery by teachers within the existing Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) and Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, improving reproductive health literacy and reducing stigma around pregnancy loss.

What is involved?

Phase 1

Year 1 (2024 to 2025)

The PLRG team worked with 24 Transition Year students at St Angela's College Cork over a full academic year. Clinical and research staff from the PLRG delivered educational sessions to the students, and from this process 12 key reproductive health messages were identified, reflecting what young people most wanted to know about reproductive health, fertility and pregnancy loss.

Students shaped the content, language and format of the resources, and an illustrator worked with them to co-create the artwork and visuals. The 12 key messages and student-created artwork were published in a student-facing booklet. Students also engaged in wider community activities during this year, including media interviews and fundraising.

Year 2 (2025 to 2026)

With funding from the HSE Consultant Innovation Fund, a postdoctoral researcher joined the team in September 2025 to support programme development. Building on the 12 key messages, the research team developed six structured classroom lessons covering healthy pregnancy, reproductive health, fertility and fertility treatment, fertility preservation, early pregnancy loss, and later pregnancy loss and stillbirth. The lessons were tested with Transition Year students and teachers at St Angela's College Cork, refined following feedback, and were subsequently tested with Sixth Year students. Transition Year students also led a School Awareness Week in April 2026 at St Angela’s, featuring posters, podcasts, peer-delivered classes and quizzes to raise awareness of reproductive health, health behaviours and pregnancy loss within their school community.

Phase 2 (2026 to 2027)

Following completion of further testing and refinement of the programme, ethical approval will be sought to pilot SPRING across secondary schools in Ireland. The plan is to recruit schools to take part during the 2026 to 2027 school year, looking for RSE and SPHE teachers who are interested in delivering the six SPRING lessons as part of their existing classes with Transition Year students.

Schools that take part will receive full teacher resource packs, student materials, and ongoing support from the SPRING research team throughout the programme. The pilot will be evaluated to assess knowledge improvement, feasibility of delivery, and the quality and consistency of programme delivery across diverse school settings.

Who is involved?

Project team

Dissemination activities

Journal articles

• Harnett Z, O’Donoghue K, Linehan L, Escañuela Sánchez T, Cotter R, Dineen S, Fitzgerald B, Power Ó, Whelan S, Peters H, Hennessy M. Enhancing young people’s pregnancy loss and fertility awareness and knowledge via schools: a way forward. Health Promotion International. 2025;40(1):daae205. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daae205.

Press releases

• Pregnancy Loss Research Group. (2025, March 12) Celebrating International Women’s Day with students and staff at St Angela’s College.
• Pregnancy Loss Research Group. (2025, May 15) Knowledge is power: Researchers team up with local secondary schools to co-create resources to increase awareness of pregnancy loss.

Radio interviews

• Linehan L, Fitzgerald B, Whelan S, SPRING Project Collaborators. "Cork students create resources to tackle pregnancy loss stigma". The Opinion Line, interviewed by Katie O’Keeffe. 96FM, 14 May 2025. https://www.96fm.ie/news/96fm-news-and-sport/listen-cork-students-create-resources-to-tackle-pregnancy-loss-stigma/.

Newspaper/Magazine articles

• Griffin N. (2025, May 16) Cork students campaign to break stigma around miscarriage and infertility in schools. Irish Examiner. https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41632831.html. 
• Meath A. (2025, June 11) Novel project at Cork secondary school to increase awareness around pregnancy loss. Echo Live. https://www.echolive.ie/wow/arid-41648744.html.  

Project status

Ongoing: July 2024 to 2027

Further information

Please email:

• Dr Brendan Fitzgerald: brendan.fitzgerald@hse.ie
• Dr Laura Linehan: laura.linehan@ucc.ie