B4109 - Childhood adverse events and breastfeeding associations with pregnancy behaviour and infant outcomes - 29/07/2022

B number: 
B4109
Principal applicant name: 
Rita Amiel Castro | University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Co-applicants: 
Vivette Glover, PhD, Thomas O'Connor, PhD, Ulrike Ehlert
Title of project: 
Childhood adverse events and breastfeeding: associations with pregnancy behaviour and infant outcomes
Proposal summary: 

Adverse childhood experiences have been associated with unfavorable health behaviours, somatic and psychological complaints in pregnancy. Beyond pregnancy experiences, a large body of research highlights intergenerational effects of maternal history of early trauma on their offspring. Given the growing interest on early adversity consequences during the perinatal phase, we aim to examine the associations between traumatic childhood events and pregnancy health behaviour, psychological symptoms, birth outcomes, sociodemographics and breastfeeding. For this we intend to include mother-infant pairs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Adverse childhood events consist of abuse (e.g. emotional, physical and sexual), neglect, (e.g. emotional and physical) and household dysfunction (e.g. parental mental illness, divorce or incarceration). We measure pregnancy health behaviour (e.g. exercise, smoking, alcohol, BMI), psychological symptoms (e.g. anxiety and depressive symptoms), sociodemographics (e.g. education, social class) and breastfeeding (e.g.initiation and duration).

Impact of research: 
Considering that a recent review on early traumatic events and breastfeeding was only able to find 8 studies in the topic, from those, 6 were qualitative and no clear conclusion was reached, it is clear that more research is needed. We believe our study will have the potential to inform readers and the scientific community about the associations between those topics.
Date proposal received: 
Wednesday, 27 July, 2022
Date proposal approved: 
Friday, 29 July, 2022
Keywords: 
Mental health - Psychology, Psychiatry, Cognition, Pregnancy - e.g. reproductive health, postnatal depression, birth outcomes, etc., Statistical methods, Nutrition - breast feeding, diet