Intrapartum synthetic oxytocin, behavioral and emotional problems in children, and the role of postnatal depressive symptoms, postnatal anxiety and mother-to-infant bonding: A Dutch prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine the association between intrapartum synthetic oxytocin and child behavioral and emotional problems and to assess if maternal depressive or anxious symptoms or mother-to-infant bonding play a mediating role in this association.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Population-based Pregnancy Anxiety and Depression Study.

Lifelines NEXT: a prospective birth cohort adding the next generation to the three-generation Lifelines cohort study.

Epidemiological research has shown there to be a strong relationship between preconceptional, prenatal, birth and early-life factors and lifelong health. The Lifelines NEXT is a birth cohort designed to study the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic determinants on health and disease in a four-generation design. It is embedded within the Lifelines cohort study, a prospective three-generation population-based cohort study recording the health and health-related aspects of 167,729 individuals living in Northern Netherlands.

Better perineal outcomes in sitting birthing position cannot be explained by changing from upright to supine position for performing an episiotomy.

Background: women who give birth in supine position are more likely to have an episiotomy than women who give birth in sitting position. A confounding effect may be that women in upright positions in second stage of labour are asked to lie down if a professional needs to perform an episiotomy. This prospective cohort study aimed to determine whether this factor can explain the lower rate of episiotomy in sitting compared to supine position.