About the Authors

Zubair Rauf

Affiliation Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Ediri O'Brien

Affiliation School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Tamara Stampalija

Affiliation Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Florin P. Ilioniu

Affiliation Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Tina Lavender

Affiliation School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Zarko Alfirevic

zarko@liv.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflict: This study was supported by an unrestricted educational grant to the University of Liverpool provided jointly by Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Monica Healthcare Ltd. None of the authors have any current or previous formal links with the companies whose products are discussed in this article. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ZR TS ZA TL. Performed the experiments: ZR TS FIP EOB TL ZA. Analyzed the data: ZR ZA TL EOB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ZR ZA TL EOB. Wrote the paper: ZR ZA EOB TL TS FIP. Critical revision of the intellectual content and manuscript review: ZR ZA.