The DOI matches its Crossref record; 170 of the 170 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Pregnancy as a period of risk, adaptation, and resilience for mothers and infants
Open accessAbstract
The pregnancy period represents a unique window of opportunity to identify risks to both the fetus and mother and to deter the intergenerational transmission of adversity and mental health problems. Although the maternal–fetal dyad is especially vulnerable to the effects of stress during pregnancy, less is known about how the dyad is also receptive to salutary, resilience-promoting influences. The present review adopts life span and intergenerational perspectives to review four key areas of research. The first part describes how pregnancy is a sensitive period for both the mother and fetus. In the second part, the focus is on antecedents of maternal prenatal risks pertaining to prenatal stress response systems and mental health. The third part then turns to elucidating how these alterations in prenatal stress physiology and mental health problems may affect infant and child outcomes. The fourth part underscores how pregnancy is also a time of heightened fetal receptivity to maternal and environmental signals, with profound implications for adaptation. This section also reviews empirical evidence of promotive and protective factors that buffer the mother and fetus from developmental and adaptational problems and covers a sample of rigorous evidence-based prenatal interventions that prevent maladaptation in the maternal–fetal dyad before babies are born. Finally, recommendations elaborate on how to further strengthen understanding of pregnancy as a period of multilevel risk and resilience, enhance comprehensive prenatal screening, and expand on prenatal interventions to promote maternal–fetal adaptation before birth.
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“Adverse conditions, such as the pandemic, during developmental windows of heightened plasticity increase the risk of maladaptive stress responses.”
From Post-partum Women’s Anxiety and Parenting Stress: Home-Visiting Protective Effect During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as Davis & Narayan, 2020
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“However, the extant literature suggests that these practices may increase the risk of postpartum depression in some mothers [5, 6].”
From Understanding mothers’ lived experiences of postpartum depression: a qualitative phenomenological study (2025) · cites this paper as [6]
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Cites
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Intergenerational transmission and prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Narayan, A. J., Lieberman, A. F., & Masten, A. S. (2021) · Clinical psychology review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2021.101997 · Cited by 436
Self-citationMental health of pregnant and postpartum women in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
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“Infants’ regulatory skills are highly susceptible to alterations in the caregiving environment (Davis & Narayan, 2020; Gartstein & Skinner, 2018).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Davis, E. P., & Narayan, A. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Denver (US)
- Corresponding author
- Davis, Elysia Poggi
- Venue
- Development and Psychopathology
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1625-1639
- ISSN
- 0954-5794 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2198
- PMC
- PMC7863987
- OpenAlex
- W3119751906
- Cited by
- 297
- References
- 169
- Citations by year
- 2026: 72 · 2025: 72 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 3.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Development and Psychopathology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Society for Research in Child Development
- National Institutes of Health (MH096889)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL155744)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH096889, R01MH109662)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare
- Keywords
- pregnancy, maternal-fetal dyad, prenatal stress, resilience, prenatal mental health, prenatal intervention, fetal development, infant outcomes, child outcomes, prenatal screening, protective factors
- MeSH terms
- Child, Female, Humans, Infant, Mothers, Pregnancy, Protective Factors
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