A review of maternal prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors-implications for research on perinatal outcomes in the ECHO program.

Exposures to environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors during pregnancy have been individually associated with adverse perinatal outcomes related to birthweight and gestational age, but are not often considered in combination. We review types of psychosocial stressors and instruments used to assess them and classes of environmental chemical exposures that are known to adversely impact perinatal outcomes, and identify studies relevant studies. We discuss the National Institutes of Health's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program that has combined existing longitudinal cohorts that include more than 50,000 children across the U.

Impacts of variants of uncertain significance on parental perceptions of children after prenatal chromosome microarray testing.

Objective: There are concerns regarding the potential harms in receipt of prenatal chromosome microarray (CMA) results, particularly variants of uncertain significance (VUS). We examined the influence that the return of genomic results had on parental well-being and perceptions of children's development.

Methods: Parents (n = 138) of 83 children who underwent prenatal chromosomal microarray testing completed questionnaires assessing perception of children's development, parent-child attachment, parental mood, parenting competence, martial satisfaction, satisfaction with the decision to undergo testing, and attitudes about genetics at age 12 and/or 36 months.

PREPP: postpartum depression prevention through the mother-infant dyad.

Most interventions to prevent postpartum depression (PPD) focus on the mother rather than the mother-infant dyad. As strong relationships between infant sleep and cry behavior and maternal postpartum mood have been demonstrated by previous research, interventions targeted at the dyad may reduce symptoms of PPD. The goal of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of Practical Resources for Effective Postpartum Parenting (PREPP).

Liver fat has a stronger association with risk factors for type 2 diabetes in African-American compared with Hispanic adolescents.

Context: Although overweight and obese African-Americans (AAs) have less visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and liver fat (LF) than Hispanics, they have a similar risk for type 2 diabetes.

Objective: We examined ethnic differences in the association between VAT and LF with risk factors for type 2 diabetes to help explain this paradox.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study in an academic pediatric care facility.