Maternal anxiety, mindfulness, and heart rate variability during pregnancy influence fetal and infant development

Abstract

In this chapter, we present our recently conceptualized model on Developmental Origins of Behavior, Health, and Disease (DOBHaD) in which we incorporate the results of four of our studies as examples to demonstrate how each topic influenced the model; in addition, we provide a brief overview of relevant literature. The study of DOBHaD encompasses both, short-and long-term consequences of conditions in the environment relevant to behavior, health, and disease risk and addresses research issues related to the interface between developmental, behavioral, and medical science. In the first section, one early and one later study from the Leuven prospective follow-up project are described. Study 1 examines the influence of maternal emotions on fetal and neonatal behavioral staterelated activity and on infant activity. Study 2 examines the relationship between fetal behavioral states and self-regulation in childhood and adolescence. In the second section, two recent studies from the Tilburg prospective follow-up project are described. Study 3 explores how variation in both negative emotions (i.e., maternal anxiety) and positive emotions (i.e., maternal mindfulness) influence infant neurocognitive development. Study 4 explores the issue of how exposure to a past, resolved maternal anxiety disorder influences maternal heart rate variability during pregnancy as well as infant heart rate variability, which in turn influences infant temperament. In the final section we summarize our results, use them to explain applications of the DOBHaD model, and speculate on potential clinical implications.