Prenatal Stress and Maternal Role in Neurodevelopment
Moriah E Thomason1,2,3, Cassandra L Hendrix1
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Annual Review of Developmental Psychology
|January 6, 2025
Summary
Maternal psychosocial experiences significantly influence fetal brain development. Understanding these factors is crucial for advancing research on prenatal stress and its long-term effects on child neurodevelopment.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Maternal Health
Background:
- Prenatal stress exposure shows heterogeneous effects on child neurodevelopment.
- Maternal psychosocial experiences are increasingly recognized as critical factors.
- Lifespan and topological frameworks inform the study of adversity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent findings on stress-related programming of brain development in utero.
- To emphasize the role of mothers' broader psychosocial experiences.
- To identify key experiential categories shaping stress's influence.
Main Methods:
- Review of meta-analyses of observational studies on prenatal stress.
- Conceptualization of individual variation in maternal lived experience.
- Structured discussion of experiential categories influencing fetal programming.
Main Results:
- Effects of prenatal stress on neurodevelopment are inconsistent across studies.
- Maternal socioeconomic resources, chronic/traumatic stressors, culture, and historical trauma are key factors.
- Individual maternal experiences mediate the impact of prenatal stress.
Conclusions:
- Maternal lived experiences are central to understanding heterogeneous effects of prenatal stress.
- Further research should explore specific experiential categories and their biological/psychological impacts.
- Identifying next steps is essential for advancing the field of fetal programming.
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