Collaborative ECHO research led by Emily Zimmerman, PhD, CCC-SLP from Northeastern University and Andréa Aguiar, PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that a mother’ s level of stress during pregnancy was linked to changes in the way her infant sucked on a pacifier.
Infants’ sucking patterns can be used to measure brain function soon after birth, and this research investigated how maternal stress during pregnancy related to infant suck patterns. Zimmerman, Aguiar, and team found that mothers who felt more stressed late in their pregnancy had infants who sucked on their pacifiers less frequently, but when they did suck on their pacifier, they did so for a longer period of time compared with infants of mothers who felt less stressed in late pregnancy. It is important to note that the mother and infants participating in this study were from two different groups who had different maternal stress levels and infants’ sucking behaviors. These differences in stress and infants’ sucking behaviors could be due to other differences between the two groups in their culture, ethnicity, geographical location, and income, and education levels.
This research, titled “Examining the Association Between Prenatal Maternal Stress and Infant Non-Nutritive Suck,” was published in Pediatric Research.
To collect data, the researchers surveyed mothers from two ECHO cohorts—one from Urbana-Champaign, Illinois and the other from Manati, Puerto Rico—regarding their stress during late pregnancy using the Perceived Stress Scale. The researchers followed up with each mother within 8 weeks after giving birth and tested their baby’s sucking pattern on a pacifier connected to a pressure detector.
This research demonstrates that maternal mood and stress during pregnancy can affect infant behavior and development starting prenatally and through the first months of life. “This finding is important as it may allow for earlier awareness of stress exposure during pregnancy,” said Dr. Zimmerman, “and as a result, earlier treatment for stress-exposed infants.”
The next steps for this research include further investigation of the link between early infant sucking patterns and visual memory, attention, and speed processing in infants.