A new UC San Francisco study found that infants whose mothers participated in a program during their pregnancies had better stress responses.
The first known study to show that a prenatal social intervention may improve health outcomes in offspring is in Psychosomatic Medicine.
Maternal stress in pregnancy increases the risk for health problems in the children, according to a clinical psychologist affiliated with the Center for Health and Community.
The researchers studied 135 mother-infant dyads from low-income, racially and ethnically diverse background who were experiencing high stress in their lives. Babies whose mothers went through an eight-week program had a faster cardiovascular recovery from stress, as well as more self-soothing behavior.
An ability to bounce back from stress is related to better health outcomes later in life, according to the senior author of the study.
Bush said that there has been little research on what we can do in the positive lane.
A quick recovery from a stress event.
The study shows that the same intervention reduced stress and depression in mothers, as well as improved their physical activity levels.
The mothers were trained in the "still face paradigm", whereby they played with their children for two minutes, then held a completely neutral facial expression for two minutes and ignored the babies. The play-ignore cycle ended with two minutes of play.
The researchers collected the data from the infants' autonomic nervous system activity during the exercise. The behavior responses of infants werecoded by trained observers who were unaware of treatment status.
Babies in the control group were less stressed out when their mothers ignored them, but when their mothers ignored them, the fight-or-flight response was more acute. The babies in the treatment group sucked their thumbs and looked at their hands.
Bush said that a strong reaction and quick recovery are good because we want our bodies to be ready for action when something is wrong. They didn't respond strongly until the threat had passed, and then they didn't calm down after the threat was over.
There is support for a Two-Generation Approach.
Bush said that the team chose mothers with high levels of stress due to their life situations, including financial strain and health challenges, to ensure the intervention worked for those who might benefit from it the most.
Bush hopes the data will embolden policymakers and advocates to say that this was an inexpensive, group-based intervention that reduced mothers depression and stress, and may improve babies long-term wellbeing at the same time.
The programs that address caregivers and children at the same time are becoming more popular in California. A dyadic care benefit for Medi-Cal patients was included in the state budget last year, which will allow caregivers and babies to be treated for behavioral health needs together. Home visiting programs, in which pregnant and new mothers receive visits from early childhood professionals who provide parenting guidance, is up for a proposed $50 million increase in the 2022-23 state budget.
Bush said that pregnant women could save a lot of money while doing the right thing.
The co-authors are from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as Karen Jones. Abbey Alkon is a PhD student in the Department of Health Care Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. There are more authors and affiliations in the paper.
The study was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program.
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The materials were provided by the University of California. The original was written by Jess. Content can be edited for style and length.
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