Relationship Between Prenatal Maternal Distress and the Quality of General Movements at 3 Months

Depression and anxiety symptoms are common during pregnancy and are estimated to affect 7% - 20% of pregnant women, constituting significant risks for mothers and babies. Depression and anxiety may disturb the intrauterine environment by affecting the mother's physiological responses to stress, and ultimately impair fetal and postnatal development. Increasing evidence shows that prenatal exposure to maternal depression and anxiety is associated with several lifelong adverse outcomes in children, including physical health problems, emotional and behavioral difficulties, and low verbal IQ.

Such maladaptive outcomes are thought to have a neurobiological basis and there is increasing evidence about the effects of maternal distress on young brain tissue leading to some structural changes. However, what is more important is that the neurological footprints of these structural changes on the young brain can be caught early in life. The neurological status of infants can be determined early in life by video assessment of General Movements (GMs) quality. In this study at the age of 3 months, a video assessment of the quality of GMs will be performed to evaluate neurologic conditions.

Mothers Inclusion Criteria:

• Mothers aged 18 to 40 years,
• Singleton pregnancy
• No smoking during prengnancy
• No illicit drug or alcohol use during pregnancy,
• No major health conditions requiring invasive treatments (e.g., dialysis, blood transfusions, chemotherapy),
• No diagnosis of psychotic illnesses (eg, schizophrenia,bipolar or borderline personality disorder), and
• No major autoimmune diseases
• No pregnancy-related complications: (including prenatal infection, pregnancy-included hypertension, gestational diabetes, oligohydramnios, polyhydramnios, preterm labor, vaginal bleeding, placenta previa, or anemia).

Infant inclusionary criteria:

• infants were born at 36-42 wk of gestation
• uncomplicated singleton birth,
• no pre-existing neurologic conditions or major head trauma, neonatal intensive care unit stay limited to observation only (ie, no interventions), and
• infant discharged from the hospital with the mother.

Mothers Exclusion Criteria:

• post partum depression and/or anxiety
• delivery complication

Infant exclusion criteri:

• infant birth before 36 weeks gestation
• infant weight lower 2500gr at birth
• Apgar score 0f <7 at 5 minutes
• Major neonatal complications
• Identified neurologic, genetic or congenital syndrome