Gestational buprenorphine-naloxone exposure and fetal neurobehavior.

Background: Buprenorphine-naloxone treatment may confer substantial benefits for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy including lower risk for overdose/death, less diversion potential and reduced use of other substances. Treatment may also result in less severe Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), but little is known about the effects of this medication on fetal neurodevelopment.

Methods: The purpose of the current study is to evaluate neurobehaviors among fetuses exposed to buprenorphine-naloxone at four time points over the second and third trimesters of gestation in pregnant women with OUD on buprenorphine-naloxone therapy.

Psychometric performance assessment of the Arabic version of the pregnancy experience scale-brief version (PES-brief) in an Arabic-speaking population.

Objective: Although tools exist to assess psychological distress during pregnancy, a scarcity of instruments are designed to measure maternal perceptions of the more positive, uplifting features of pregnancy in addition to the more negative, hassling aspects. To address this shortcoming, DiPietro et al. developed the Pregnancy Experience Scale-Brief (PES-Brief).

Fetal heart rate responses to maternal sleep-disordered breathing.

Background: Maternal sleep-disordered breathing is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and is considered to be deleterious to the developing fetus. Maternal obesity potentiates sleep-disordered breathing, which, in turn, may contribute to the effect of maternal obesity on adverse fetal outcomes. However, only a few empirical studies have evaluated the contemporaneous effects of maternal sleep-disordered breathing events on fetal well-being.

More than meets the eye: Examining physiological and behavioral regulation during delay of gratification task.

Children continually encounter situations where they must regulate impulsive responses to achieve a goal, requiring both self-control (SC) and delay of gratification. We examined concurrent behavioral SC strategies (fidgeting, vocalizations, anticipation) and physiological regulation (heart rate [HR], respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) in 126 children (M (SD) = 5.4 (0.

It Takes Two: An antenatal to postnatal RDoC framework for investigating the origins of maternal attachment and mother-infant social communication.

Transformation of the maternal-fetal relationship into the mother-infant relationship remains an enigmatic process. This progression is considered using an RDoC-informed approach centered on domains of Arousal/Regulation, Positive/Negative Valence, and Social Processes. 158 maternal-fetal dyads began participation during pregnancy, maternal-infant dyads were followed at 6-months postpartum.

Measuring fetal heart rate and variability: Fetal cardiotocography versus electrocardiography.

Fetal heart rate variability is a key indicator of fetal neurodevelopment and well-being. Most studies have relied on Doppler-based fetal cardiotocography (fCTG) but recent technologies have made fetal electrocardiography (fECG) more widely available. We compared simultaneous recordings of fCTG and fECG in 131 fetuses twice during gestation (28 and 36 weeks) using a commercially available device (Monica AN24).

Fetal neuromaturation in late gestation is affected by maternal sleep disordered breathing and sleep disruption in pregnant women with obesity.

Objective: Maternal sleep disordered breathing and sleep disruption have adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes through multiple potential pathophysiologic pathways. We hypothesize that disordered maternal sleep also adversely impacts the neuromaturation of the fetus.

Methods: Participants in this prospective observational study included 102 obese pregnant women (pre-pregnancy body mass index [BMI] of 30 or higher) at 36 weeks of pregnancy.

Fetal heart rate during maternal sleep.

Despite prolonged and cumulative exposure during gestation, little is known about the fetal response to maternal sleep. Eighty-four pregnant women with obesity (based on pre-pregnancy BMI) participated in laboratory-based polysomnography (PSG) with continuous fetal electrocardiogram monitoring at 36 weeks gestation. Multilevel modeling revealed both correspondence and lack of it in maternal and fetal heart rate patterns.

Long-Term Associations Between Prenatal Maternal Cortisol and Child Neuroendocrine-Immune Regulation.

Background: Advancing understanding of the developmental origins of neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) functioning is key to elucidating the biological mechanisms involved in health and disease risk across the lifespan. This study examined whether prenatal maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity moderates child NEI relations and explored the consistency of this moderating effect across gestation.

Methods: Pregnant women participated in five prenatal study visits from 24 to 38 weeks gestation.

The bloom is (slightly) off the rose: the motherhood effect on psychological functioning in successive pregnancies.

To examine the maternal psychological state during the course of two successive pregnancies. The sample consisted of 73 women drawn from a larger maternal-fetal cohort that participated during two pregnancies. Women completed self-report psychological questionnaires at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation to index maternal depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and pregnancy hassles and uplifts.

Maternal buprenorphine treatment during pregnancy and maternal physiology.

Background: Buprenorphine, used for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment during pregnancy, provides unknown effects on maternal physiological activity. The primary aim of this report is to document acute effects of buprenorphine administration on indicators of maternal autonomic functioning. Effects of maternal buprenorphine dose and other substance exposures on maternal measures were examined, as were neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) outcomes.

In sync: Physiological correlates of behavioral synchrony in infants and mothers.

Infant-mother behavioral synchrony is thought to scaffold the development of self-regulation in the first years of life. During this time, infants' and mothers' physiological regulation may contribute to dyadic synchrony and, in infants, dyadic synchrony may support infants' physiological regulation. Because the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) serve different regulatory functions, the current study aimed to elucidate relations between infants' and mothers' SNS and PNS functioning and dyadic behavioral synchrony.

Predicting child temperament and behavior from the fetus.

There remains little debate that the period before birth sets the stage for subsequent development, yet scant evidence exists showing continuity from characteristics of the individual fetus to characteristics of the child. This report examines, in two studies, whether baseline and evoked fetal neurobehavioral functioning are predictive of features of child temperament and behavior as reported by mothers when offspring were between 7 and 14 years old (M = 10.1 years).

Maternal salivary testosterone in pregnancy and fetal neuromaturation.

Testosterone exposure during pregnancy has been hypothesized as a mechanism for sex differences in brain and behavioral development observed in the postnatal period. The current study documents the natural history of maternal salivary testosterone from 18 weeks gestation of pregnancy to 6 months postpartum, and investigates associations with fetal heart rate, motor activity, and their integration. Findings indicate maternal salivary testosterone increases with advancing gestation though no differences by fetal sex were detected.

Maternal buprenorphine treatment and infant outcome.

Background And Objectives: Maternal buprenorphine maintenance predisposes the infant to exhibit neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), but there is insufficient published information regarding the nature of NAS and factors that contribute to its severity in buprenorphine-exposed infants.

Methods: The present study evaluated forty-one infants of buprenorphine-maintained women in comprehensive substance use disorder treatment who participated in an open-label study examining the effects of maternal buprenorphine maintenance on infant outcomes. Modifiers of the infant outcomes, including maternal treatment and substance use disorder parameters, were also evaluated.

Maternal buprenorphine treatment and fetal neurobehavioral development.

Background: Gestational opioid use/misuse is escalating in the United States; however, little is understood about the fetal effects of medications used to treat maternal opioid use disorders.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of maternal buprenorphine administration on longitudinal fetal neurobehavioral development.

Study Design: Forty-nine buprenorphine-maintained women who attended a substance use disorder treatment facility with generally uncomplicated pregnancies underwent fetal monitoring for 60 minutes at times of trough and peak maternal buprenorphine levels.

Maternal distress and child neuroendocrine and immune regulation.

Rationale: Neuroendocrine-immune regulation is essential for maintaining health. Early-life adversity may cause dysregulation in the neuroendocrine-immune network through repeated activation of the stress response, thereby increasing disease risk.

Objective: This paper examined the extent to which maternal psychological well-being moderates neuroendocrine-immune relations in children.

Fetal heart rate and motor development in overweight and obese pregnant women.

Objective: To determine the relationship between maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and fetal cardiac and motor activity and integration during the second half of pregnancy.

Methods: Longitudinal data were collected from 610 nonsmoking women with normally progressing pregnancies at three gestational periods (24, 30-32, and 36 weeks) across eight cohorts studied between 1997 and 2013. Fifty minutes of fetal heart rate and motor activity data were collected at each period via actocardiography in a laboratory setting.

Don't worry, be (moderately) happy: Mothers' anxiety and positivity during pregnancy independently predict lower mother-infant synchrony.

Maternal positivity and mother-infant synchrony have been linked, independently, to beneficial infant outcomes; however, research that has examined relations between the two has found that higher positivity is associated with lower synchrony. Methodological issues may inform this counter-intuitive association and clinical theory supports its validity. This study examined the theory that heightened positivity associated with anxiety is a way of avoiding negative emotion and contributes to lower synchrony because it interferes with appropriate responding to infant cues.

STUDIES IN FETAL BEHAVIOR: REVISITED, RENEWED, AND REIMAGINED.

Among the earliest volumes of this monograph series was a report by Lester Sontag and colleagues, of the esteemed Fels Institute, on the heart rate of the human fetus as an expression of the developing nervous system. Here, some 75 years later, we commemorate this work and provide historical and contemporary context on knowledge regarding fetal development, as well as results from our own research. These are based on synchronized monitoring of maternal and fetal parameters assessed between 24 and 36 weeks gestation on 740 maternal-fetal pairs compiled from eight separate longitudinal studies, which commenced in the early 1990s.

The ups and downs of early mothering.

Introduction: The maternal experience of having a young infant is often viewed through a negative lens focused on psychological distress due, in part, to a historical focus on identifying threats to prenatal, perinatal and postpartum well-being of women and infants. This report examines maternal appraisal of both positive and negative experiences during and after pregnancy and introduces a new scale that assesses both uplifts and hassles that are specific to early motherhood.

Methods: The sample included 136 women who began study participation during pregnancy and completed an existing scale designed to evaluate pregnancy-specific hassles and uplifts.

Salivary cytokines as a minimally-invasive measure of immune functioning in young children: correlates of individual differences and sensitivity to laboratory stress.

There is growing interest in minimally-invasive measures of environmentally-responsive biological systems in developmental science. Contributing to that endeavor, this study explores the intercorrelations, correlates, and task-sensitivity of proinflammatory salivary cytokines in childhood. Saliva was sampled from 125 healthy five-year old children (49% male) across a series of cognitive and emotional challenge laboratory tasks.

Physiological reactivity of pregnant women to evoked fetal startle.

Objective: The bidirectional nature of mother-child interaction is widely acknowledged during infancy and childhood. Prevailing models during pregnancy focus on unidirectional influences exerted by the pregnant woman on the developing fetus. Prior work has indicated that the fetus also affects the pregnant woman.

Near-term fetal response to maternal spoken voice.

Knowledge about prenatal learning has been largely predicated on the observation that newborns appear to recognize the maternal voice. Few studies have examined the process underlying this phenomenon; that is, whether and how the fetus responds to maternal voice in situ. Fetal heart rate and motor activity were recorded at 36 weeks gestation (n = 69) while pregnant women read aloud from a neutral passage.

Fetal heart rate and motor activity associations with maternal organochlorine levels: results of an exploratory study.

Contemporaneous associations between circulating maternal organochlorines (OCs) and measures of fetal heart rate and motor activity were evaluated. A panel of 47 OCs, including pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was analyzed from serum of 50 pregnant women at 36 weeks gestation. Data were empirically reduced into four factors and six individual compounds.