Pregnant in a Pandemic: Mental Wellbeing and Associated Healthy Behaviors Among Pregnant People in California During COVID-19.

Introduction: Pregnancy is a time of increased vulnerability to mental health disorders. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of depression and anxiety. Thus, we aimed to assess mental health and associated healthy behaviors of pregnant people in California during the pandemic in order to contextualize prenatal well-being during the first pandemic of the twenty-first century.

Collateral benefits from a school-readiness intervention on breastfeeding: A cross-domain impact evaluation.

This study evaluated the collateral, or unanticipated, impacts of Smart Beginnings (SB), a two-site, tiered intervention designed to promote responsive parenting and school readiness, on breastfeeding intensity in a low-income sample. Impact analyses for the SB intervention were conducted using an intent-to-treat design leveraging a two-arm random assignment structure. Mothers assigned to the SB intervention group were more than three times more likely to give breastmilk as the only milk source at infant age 6 months than mothers assigned to the control group at one site, an effect not evident at the other study site.

From hybrid to fully remote clinical trial amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: Strategies to promote recruitment, retention, and engagement in a randomized mHealth trial.

Clinical trials worldwide were disrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Most intervention trials moved to some form of remote implementation due to restrictions on in-person research activities. Although the proportion of remote trials is growing, they remain the vast minority of studies in part due to few successful examples.

Housing Insecurity, Housing Conditions, and Breastfeeding Behaviors for Medicaid-Eligible Families in Urban Settings.

Background: Research exploring associations between exposure to social determinants of health and breastfeeding is needed to identify breastfeeding barriers. Housing insecurity and household conditions (chaos and crowding) may affect breastfeeding by increasing maternal stress and discomfort and decreasing time available to breastfeed.

Research Aim: We aimed to examine the relationships between housing insecurity, breastfeeding exclusivity intention during the early postnatal period, and breastfeeding exclusivity at 6 months postpartum among a sample "at risk" for suboptimal breastfeeding rates.

Measuring Evidence-Based Viral Respiratory Illness Mitigation Behaviors in Pregnant Populations: Development and Validation of a Short, Single-Factor Scale During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: Researchers and public health professionals need to better understand individual engagement in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mitigation behaviors to reduce the human and societal costs of the current pandemic and prepare for future respiratory pandemics. We suggest that developing measures of individual mitigation behaviors and testing them among high-risk individuals, including pregnant people, may help to reduce overall morbidity and mortality by quickly identifying targets for messaging around mitigation until sufficient vaccination uptake is reached.

Methods: We surveyed pregnant people in California over 2 waves of the COVID-19 pandemic to explore mitigation behaviors.

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine uptake during pregnancy: 'Hesitance', knowledge, and evidence-based decision-making.

Background: A key mitigation strategy to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the development and roll-out of vaccines. However, pregnant and lactating people were not included in initial vaccine trials and this population is hesitant to receive the vaccine, despite contrary recommendations from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding the reasons behind this hesitancy is vital to promote vaccine uptake.

"Painful, yet Beautiful, Moments": Pathways Through Infant Feeding and Dynamic Conceptions of Breastfeeding Success.

What is breastfeeding "success"? In this article, we challenge the traditional biomedical definition, instead centering visions of success described by breastfeeding mothers themselves. Using semi-structured interviews, quantitative surveys, and written narratives of 38 first-time mothers in the United States, we describe five common pathways through the first-year postpartum, a taxonomic distinction far more complex than a success-failure dichotomy: sustained breastfeeding, exclusive pumping, combination feeding, rapid weaning, and grinding back to exclusivity. We also explore the myriad ways in which mothers define and experience breastfeeding success, and in the process uncover the ways that cultural narratives-especially -color those experiences.

Barriers and facilitators to expressing milk on campus as a breastfeeding student.

Despite the growing student parent population, many postsecondary institutions in the United States (U.S.) lack sufficient lactation policies for students.

Breastfeeding and Responsive Parenting as Predictors of Infant Weight Change in the First Year.

Objective: To test breastfeeding duration and responsive parenting as independent predictors of infant weight change from birth to 12 months, and to test the moderating effect of a tiered parenting intervention on relations between breastfeeding and responsive parenting in relation to infant weight change.

Methods: Mother-infant dyads (N = 403) were participants in the ongoing Smart Beginnings (SB) randomized controlled trial testing the impact of the tiered SB parenting model that incorporates two evidence-based interventions: Video Interaction Project (VIP) and Family Check-Up (FCU). The sample was low income and predominantly Black and Latinx.

Perinatal health care access, childbirth concerns, and birthing decision-making among pregnant people in California during COVID-19.

Background: During public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, access to adequate healthcare is crucial for providing for the health and wellbeing of families. Pregnant and postpartum people are a particularly vulnerable subgroup to consider when studying healthcare access. Not only are perinatal people likely at higher risk for illness, mortality, and morbidity from COVID-19 infection, they are also at higher risk for negative outcomes due to delayed or inadequate access to routine care.

Estimating the Impact of In-Hospital Infant Formula Supplementation on Breastfeeding Success.

To assess whether in-hospital infant formula supplementation impacts later successful breastfeeding among healthy mother-infant dyads in the United States who are not intending to exclusively use infant formula. Using secondary analysis of a national longitudinal survey (Infant Feeding Practices Study II,  = 2,399), we estimated effects of in-hospital infant formula supplementation on later breastfeeding success by matching mothers whose infants received in-hospital formula supplementation with mothers whose infants did not. Estimates were compared across four matching methods.

The sleeper effect of perceived insufficient milk supply in US mothers.

Objective: To test whether perception of insufficient milk (PIM) supply in the breast-feeding relationship of one child predicts how long mothers breast-feed subsequent children, and whether this association differs for first-time mothers v. mothers with previous children.

Design: Secondary analysis of Infant Feeding Practices Study II (ordinary least squares regression) and Year 6 follow-up.

Time Off Work After Childbirth and Breastfeeding Supportive Workplaces: Associations with Near-Exclusive Breastfeeding Trajectory Membership.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether the association between time off work and a near-exclusive breastfeeding trajectory is moderated by perceived employer support for breastfeeding.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of working mothers (n = 1,468) from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II, a longitudinal observational (2005-2007) study of U.S.

Breastfeeding Behaviors and Maternal Interaction Quality in a Low-Income, Ethnic Minority Population.

Objective: To examine the associations between breastfeeding intensity and underexplored features of maternal-child interaction quality over and above the influence of breastfeeding initiation.

Methods: The current study leveraged an on-going, multisite randomized controlled trial of a tiered parenting program for 462 Medicaid-eligible mothers and their infants in the United States. We examined whether breastfeeding intensity and exclusivity was associated with observed maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and detachment, as well as self-reported maternal verbal responsiveness, 6 months infant age.

Latent trajectories of infant breast milk consumption in the United States.

Patterns of breastfeeding over time are not currently well understood. Limited qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that there may be latent subgroups of mothers in the United States following very different trajectories of breast milk provision for their infants. This study used a quantitative modelling method (group-based trajectory modelling) to identify and describe these subgroups.

Commentary: New Directions in Developmentally Informed Intervention Research for Vulnerable Populations.

This special section of Child Development brings together experts in developmental science and intervention research to incorporate current evidence on resilience for vulnerable populations and give concrete suggestions for action and research. This commentary synthesizes the contributions of the articles, noting themes such as simultaneous attention to multiple risk, protective, and promotive processes; integrating new principles from clinical and therapeutic interventions; and adapting intervention approaches for new populations. It then describes additional directions for interventions to maximize resilience, including approaches that address social psychological processes, issues related to demographic and other forms of diversity, policy-related individual behaviors, and sequenced interventions across the life span.

Education Attainment and Parity Explain the Relationship Between Maternal Age and Breastfeeding Duration in U.S. Mothers.

Background: Prior research in high-income countries finds that young mothers tend to breastfeed their infants for shorter durations than older mothers; however, there are gaps in our understanding of the processes by which age influences breastfeeding. Research aim: The primary objective of this study was to test the mediating effects of parity and education attainment on the association between maternal age and two breastfeeding outcomes: total duration and duration of exclusive breastfeeding.

Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis of the IFPS II, a prospective, longitudinal study of ~ 4,900 American mothers.

Mixed-Status Immigrant Families in the United States: The Role of Social Justice in Intervention Research.

More than 4 million unauthorized parents of legal status children currently reside in the United States (Capps, Fix, & Zong, 2016). Developmental scientists and intervention researchers hoping to work with these mixed-status families face a myriad of challenges, largely generated from the population's policy-driven social exclusion. Despite the challenges, there is a moral imperative to work with and support parents and children currently living in mixed-status households.