Choosing for a Homebirth during COVID-19 Lockdown in The Netherlands, who and why: A national prospective questionnaire study.

Objective: During the first COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands (9 March-1 June 2020), the homebirth rate increased from 27 % to 37 % among women with low-risk pregnancies starting labour in primary midwife-led care (overall population: 15 % in 2020). We explored characteristics and motivations of women who change their preference from a hospital birth to a home birth.

Design: A nationwide prospective online questionnaire.

Trait mindfulness during pregnancy and maternal-infant bonding: Longitudinal associations with infant temperament and social-emotional development.

Maternal love and caregiving are pillars for optimal child development and may affect infant outcomes from pregnancy onwards. The present study aimed to examine whether maternal trait mindfulness during pregnancy and pre- and postnatal maternal-infant bonding were associated with maternal perceptions of infant temperament and social-emotional development. In total, 408 Dutch women (M = 31.

A longitudinal study on the association between trait mindfulness and maternal bonding across the perinatal period.

Aims/background: The mother-to-infant is important for healthy child development. The current study focused on the association between maternal trait mindfulness and the course of maternal bonding from pregnancy to one year postpartum.

Design/methods: Women participating in a prospective perinatal cohort study ( = 1003) completed online questionnaires on maternal bonding (Pre- and Post-natal Bonding Scale) at 28 weeks of pregnancy, and at 8 weeks, 6 months and 12 months postpartum.

The association of maternal-infant interactive behavior, dyadic frontal alpha asymmetry, and maternal anxiety in a smartphone-adapted still face paradigm.

Mother-infant interactions form a strong basis for emotion regulation development in infants. These interactions can be affected by various factors, including maternal postnatal anxiety. Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning allows for simultaneous assessment of mother-infant brain-to-behavior association during stressful events, such as the still-face paradigm (SFP).

Browsing throughout pregnancy: The longitudinal course of social media use during pregnancy.

Background: The number of people using social media has substantially increased over the past years. Previous studies have shown associations between social media overuse and mental health problems during pregnancy. The current study evaluates changes in social media use during pregnancy.

Paternal bonding in pregnancy and early parenthood: a qualitative study in first-time fathers.

The birth of an infant marks a period of profound change in first-time parents. Parental love and warmth, however, already begin to develop during pregnancy. Also for fathers, the development of bonding to the infant may be a unique process.

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is associated with weaker prefrontal functional connectivity in adult offspring.

Background: The connectome, constituting a unique fingerprint of a person's brain, may be influenced by its prenatal environment, potentially affecting later-life resilience and mental health.

Methods: We conducted a prospective resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study in 28-year-old offspring (N = 49) of mothers whose anxiety was monitored during pregnancy. Two offspring anxiety subgroups were defined: "High anxiety" (n = 13) group versus "low-to-medium anxiety" (n = 36) group, based on maternal self-reported state anxiety at 12-22 weeks of gestation.

Breastfeeding and room-sharing during COVID-19 in the Netherlands: The impact of perinatal healthcare support.

Aim: The recommendations of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and parent-infant room-sharing (RS) are often not followed. As these early caregiving practices may have been affected by the COVID-19-related restrictions, we documented BF and RS practices in the Netherlands (2020-2021) and the effects of perceived perinatal healthcare support.

Methods: Pregnant women and mothers of an infant younger than 6 months (N = 784) completed online questionnaires (e.

Social media use as a risk factor for depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

Background: Accumulating research has shown associations between excessive social media use (SMU) with depressive symptoms. Depression is common during pregnancy, but it is not known whether SMU plays a role in the etiology and clinical course of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

Methods: The current study is a prospective cohort study with Dutch-speaking pregnant women recruited at the first antenatal appointment (N = 697).

Intergenerational Transmission of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Prior to Birth: Effects on Human Fetal Amygdala Functional Connectivity.

Objective: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a potent risk factor for developing psychopathology later in life. Accumulating research suggests that the influence is not limited to the exposed individual but may also be transmitted across generations. In this study, we examine the effect of CM in pregnant women on fetal amygdala-cortical function, prior to postnatal influences.

Prenatal hair cortisol concentrations during the COVID-19 outbreak: Associations with maternal psychological stress and infant temperament.

Background: Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy, including stress resulting from disasters and trauma, has been linked to temperamental difficulties in offspring. Although heightened cortisol concentrations are often hypothesized as an underlying mechanism, evidence supporting this mechanism is not consistent, potentially because of methodological issues and low stress in the population.

Aim: To address these issues, this preregistered study investigated the following associations between: 1) prenatal psychological stress and hair cortisol, as a biomarker for chronic stress, during the COVID-19 outbreak (i.

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry in Response to Stressor Moderates the Relation Between Parenting Hassles and Child Externalizing Problems.

Inequitable urban environments are associated with toxic stress and altered neural social stress processing that threatens the development of self-regulation. Some children in these environments struggle with early onset externalizing problems that are associated with a variety of negative long-term outcomes. While previous research has linked parenting daily hassles to child externalizing problems, the role of frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) as a potential modifier of this relationship has scarcely been explored.

Brains in Sync: Practical Guideline for Parent-Infant EEG During Natural Interaction.

Parent-infant EEG is a novel hyperscanning paradigm to measure social interaction simultaneously in the brains of parents and infants. The number of studies using parent-infant dual-EEG as a theoretical framework to measure brain-to-brain synchrony during interaction is rapidly growing, while the methodology for measuring synchrony is not yet uniform. While adult dual-EEG methodology is quickly improving, open databases, tutorials, and methodological validations for dual-EEG with infants are largely missing.

Parents of young infants report poor mental health and more insensitive parenting during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has put an unprecedented pressure on families with children. How parents were affected by the first Covid-19 lockdown during the early postpartum period, an already challenging period for many, is unknown.

Aim: To investigate the associations between Covid-19 related stress, mental health, and insensitive parenting practices in mothers and fathers with young infants during the first Dutch Covid-19 lockdown.

The association of unplanned pregnancy with perinatal depression: a longitudinal cohort study.

Perinatal depression is common, affecting approximately 7-13% of women. Studies have shown an association between unplanned pregnancy and perinatal depressive symptoms, but many used a cross-sectional design and limited postnatal follow-up. The current study investigated the association of unplanned pregnancy with perinatal depressive symptoms using a longitudinal cohort study that followed women from the first trimester until 12 months postpartum.

In sync with your child: The potential of parent-child electroencephalography in developmental research.

Healthy interaction between parent and child is foundational for the child's socioemotional development. Recently, an innovative paradigm shift in electroencephalography (EEG) research has enabled the simultaneous measurement of neural activity in caregiver and child. This dual-EEG or hyperscanning approach, termed parent-child dual-EEG, combines the strength of both behavioral observations and EEG methods.

Improving the generalizability of infant psychological research: The ManyBabies model.

Yarkoni's analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation.

Tracking Infant Development With a Smartphone: A Practical Guide to the Experience Sampling Method.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced developmental researchers to rethink their traditional research practices. The growing need to study infant development at a distance has shifted our research paradigm to online and digital monitoring of infants and families, using electronic devices, such as smartphones. In this practical guide, we introduce the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) - a research method to collect data, in the moment, on multiple occasions over time - for examining infant development at a distance.

The risk and protective factors of heightened prenatal anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 lockdown.

While pregnant women are already at-risk for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, this is heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared anxiety and depression symptoms, as indicators of psychological distress, before and during COVID-19, and investigated the role of partner, social network and healthcare support on COVID-19-related worries and consequently on psychological distress. A national survey, conducted during the first lockdown in The Netherlands, assessed COVID-19 experiences and psychological distress (N = 1421), whereas a comparison sample (N = 1439) was screened for psychological distress in 2017-2018.

Epigenetic Modifications Associated with Maternal Anxiety during Pregnancy and Children's Behavioral Measures.

Epigenetic changes are associated with altered behavior and neuropsychiatric disorders and they modify the trajectory of aging. Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is a common environmental challenge for the fetus, causing changes in DNA methylation. Here, we determined the mediating role of DNA methylation and the moderating role of offspring sex on the association between maternal anxiety and children's behavioral measures.

Automated Brain Masking of Fetal Functional MRI with Open Data.

Fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has emerged as a critical new approach for characterizing brain development before birth. Despite the rapid and widespread growth of this approach, at present, we lack neuroimaging processing pipelines suited to address the unique challenges inherent in this data type. Here, we solve the most challenging processing step, rapid and accurate isolation of the fetal brain from surrounding tissue across thousands of non-stationary 3D brain volumes.

The COVID-19 outbreak increases maternal stress during pregnancy, but not the risk for postpartum depression.

The COVID-19 pandemic affects society and may especially have an impact on mental health of vulnerable groups, such as perinatal women. This prospective cohort study of 669 participating women in the Netherlands compared perinatal symptoms of depression and stress during and before the pandemic. After a pilot in 2018, recruitment started on 7 January 2019.

Maternal stress during pregnancy alters fetal cortico-cerebellar connectivity in utero and increases child sleep problems after birth.

Child sleep disorders are increasingly prevalent and understanding early predictors of sleep problems, starting in utero, may meaningfully guide future prevention efforts. Here, we investigated whether prenatal exposure to maternal psychological stress is associated with increased sleep problems in toddlers. We also examined whether fetal brain connectivity has direct or indirect influence on this putative association.

The late positive potential (LPP): A neural marker of internalizing problems in early childhood.

Background: One potentially relevant neurophysiological marker of internalizing problems (anxiety/depressive symptoms) is the late positive potential (LPP), as it is related to processing of emotional stimuli. For the first time, to our knowledge, we investigated the value of the LPP as a neurophysiological marker for internalizing problems and specific anxiety and depressive symptoms, at preschool age.

Method: At age 4 years, children (N = 84) passively viewed a series of neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant pictures selected from the International Affective Pictures System.