Alison E. Hipwell: What Can the Preconception Period Tell Us About Maternal and Child Health?

Key Takeaways:

• Previous research shows that maternal stress and distress during pregnancy can be linked to infant and child health outcomes, but researchers need more specific information about this relationship to design effective mental health screening and intervention strategies.
• Studies that look at stress exposures over the course of the extended preconception period (the period before a person becomes pregnant, extending back to their own childhood) have shown that the type, timing, and duration of stress a mother experiences may be related to their child’s ultimate health and well-being.
• Assessing mental health during childhood and adolescence could help identify individuals who are at high risk for mood disorders (e.g., depression) later during pregnancy, enabling mental health interventions before pregnancy that may prevent or reduce negative health outcomes for both mother and child.
• Understanding the pathways through which exposures during the extended preconception period affect future pregnancy and childhood health is essential to help researchers and clinicians design appropriate, well-timed interventions that can disrupt cross-generational health disparities.

Speaker:

Alison E. Hipwell, PhD, ClinPsyD

Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology
University of Pittsburgh, PA

Speaker Bio:

Dr Alison Hipwell is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She obtained a PhD in developmental psychopathology from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London and a clinical psychology doctorate from the University of East Anglia in the UK. Her program of research uses life course models to understand reproductive mental health and intergenerational models of stress. As part of the investigative team of the longitudinal Pittsburgh Girls Study for the past 22 years, Dr. Hipwell has been testing hypotheses focused on risk and protective pathways and stress regulation mechanisms for peripartum health, modifiable buffers of negative effects and prospective associations with social, emotional and behavioral outcomes in infants and children.

Date: Wednesday, May 10th, 1 to 2pm ET