10. How do lifestyle factors affect pregnancy and postpartum health? With Dr. Catherine Herba

Content warning: mention of intimate partner violence

For today’s episode, Shalaka will be interviewing Dr. Catherine Herba. We’ll be aiming to answer the question: How do lifestyle factors affect pregnancy and postpartum mental health? We discuss:
-possible biological mechanisms for the influence of prenatal stress on child outcomes, including stress hormones like cortisol and the placenta
-how prenatal stress is related to factors like sleep, exercise, and social support
-why the prenatal and postpartum period is a particularly vulnerable one
-how the Covid-19 pandemic affected maternal mental health

In the post-episode discussion (37:03), Alyson and Shalaka discuss normal stress, mental health in pregnancy and postpartum, and how a support system can help.

Links
https://professeurs.uqam.ca/professeur/herba.catherine/
Québec perinatal health https://www.santementaleperinataleqc.com
RRESPA study: www.resppa.ca
3D study: https://www.irnpqeo.ca/en/

Citations
Herba, C. M., & Glover, V. (2021). The Developmental Effects of Prenatal Maternal Stress: Evolutionary Explanations. In Prenatal Stress and Child Development (pp. 23-52). Springer, Cham.

Herba, C. M., Glover, V., Ramchandani, P. G., & Rondon, M. B. (2016). Maternal depression and mental health in early childhood: an examination of underlying mechanisms in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(10), 983-992.

Review of lifestyle behaviours: De Weerth (2018). Prenatal stress and the development of psychopathology: lifestyle behaviousr as a fundamental part of the puzzle.

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Prenatal research from Shalaka’s lab and the DREAM BIG consortium:
Dreambigresearch.com
Prenatal Stress and Child Development book (2021):
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-60159-1

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Initial podcast consultation provided by Zoé Gagnon-Paquin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-g-p/
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