How ECHO Advances Pre-, Peri-, and Postnatal Health

The ECHO Program investigates factors that can influence child health outcomes before, during, and just after birth. These factors include environmental exposures during pregnancy, a pregnant person’s physical and mental health, and whether there are pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. The program also looks at how exposure to opioids can affect child health outcomes.  

Many factors before, during, and just after birth can influence child health outcomes. These factors can affect birth outcomes such as preterm birth or being born small for gestational age. They can also affect outcomes later in childhood, like how well they breathe, how much they weigh, how their brain develops, and how healthy they are overall. In addition, studying the pre-, peri-, and postnatal periods can give researchers insight into factors that affect the health of mothers and babies and contribute to health disparities.  

What We're Learning

The ECHO Program has published more than 1,500 articles about the results of its research, including many that looked at pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes.

Here are recent examples of ECHO research:

“Eat, Sleep, Console” approach shown to be more effective in caring for newborns with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome
April 2023
ECHO ISPCTN researchers found that the “Eat, Sleep, Console” (ESC) care approach is more effective for the treatment of infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) than usual approaches to care. ESC focuses on care without the use of medications and includes holding, swaddling, and rocking the baby in a quiet, calm environment. 

Maternal PFAS Exposure During Pregnancy May Increase Children’s Risk of Obesity
June 2023
Higher levels of some per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during pregnancy were linked with slightly higher body mass index (BMI) in children and an increased risk of obesity.  

ECHO Study Suggests Most Prenatal Vitamins May Not Provide All of the Nutrients Pregnant People Need
April 2023
ECHO researchers conducted this study to help pregnant people and doctors pick prenatal supplements that contain optimal doses of key micronutrients to support a healthy pregnancy. 

ECHO Study Suggests Oxidative Stress Contributes to Mother's Risk for Pre-term Birth
November 2022
Pregnant people who had higher levels of harmful molecules that indicate bodily stress during pregnancy had a higher probability of delivering preterm babies. 

Pregnancy Complications Like Preeclampsia and Gestational Diabetes May Be Linked to Slower Biological Development in Babies
February 2023
Babies exposed to preeclampsia or gestational diabetes in the womb had younger biological clocks than babies without those exposures, indicating that these exposures may have caused them to develop more slowly than they should have.