Perinatal interventions to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): A scoping review.

Background: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is a public health priority, and the perinatal period is a sensitive life stage when preventive interventions could be particularly effective. Protecting and buffering pregnant persons and infants from exposure to adversity can optimize children's development and health trajectories, reduce future morbidity and mortality, and even break intergenerational cycles of adversity, but no study has synthesized experimental evidence on effectiveness of interventions to address ACEs in the perinatal period.

Objectives: To (1) identify perinatal ACE prevention interventions, tested in high quality randomized control trials, with a dyadic perspective examining outcomes for mother and child; (2) describe their (a) place on the public health prevention continuum and (b) incorporation of life course characteristics that aim to optimize life health trajectories; and (3) determine which interventions show evidence of effectiveness.