About this Research Topic

Background

Maternal mental health is recognized as an important public health issue. Pregnant women frequently experience mental health issues, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, but these conditions are frequently unnoticed. Additionally, the psychological well-being of mothers has a noteworthy impact on the health and development of their newborns. Early neurodevelopment in children and prenatal outcomes are closely related to the maternal psychological health. This important issue is very well described by the fetal programming hypothesis. Due to the fetus's physiological adaptation to the intrauterine environment, the prenatal period is especially sensitive to environmental influencing factors. Numerous factors can affect maternal and neonatal health and disease during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. According to the fetal programming hypothesis, altered fetal physiology may alter how major tissue and organ systems' developmental patterns are programmed, which could contribute to clarifying how a person's long-term susceptibility to disease is preserved.

This research topic aims to disseminate studies regarding maternal mental health during pregnancy and after delivery and its impact on infant and child development. More specifically, it intends to explore and identify the effects of anxiety, stress, and depression in pregnancy and the postpartum period on adverse child developmental outcomes. The goal is to answer specific questions about how maternal psychopathology influences child development and to test hypotheses related to the developmental origin of health and disease (DOHaD) theory, also referred to as the fetal programming hypothesis.

To gather further insights into the range and limitations of maternal mental health impacts, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Developmental screening and assessment
- Pediatric developmental topics
- Stress, depression, and anxiety in pregnancy and postpartum
- Psychological and/or medical determinants of pregnant women's and children's health
- Studies incorporating the DOHaD hypothesis
- Epigenetic adaptations in fetal/neonatal DNA in response to environmental influences

Keywords: Maternal distress, anxiety, depression, stress, fetal programming hypotheses, Infant development, child development, pregnancy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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