Prenatal Mental Health

Based on early development indices, one-quarter of children enter school with some form of developmental delay (Hertzman, 2009). While many influences impact a child’s development, research from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the United Kingdom suggests that among children with suboptimal development, the main contributing factor in 10% to 15% of these children is poor prenatal maternal mental health (Glover, 2014). Thus, when considering the benefits of early intervention and possible approaches to prevention of child development problems, strong evidence from more than two decades of research studying children and their mothers from pregnancy to adolescence indicates that improving maternal prenatal mental health is [Page 1054]likely to improve child health and development. While there has been little research to date ...