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Advances in fetal monitoring and research linking events in utero with subsequent fetal morbidity are elucidating the effects of maternal behavior on fetal well-being. Progress in these areas will generate medical and legal questions about the physicians' role in detecting and managing maternal behavior that threatens fetal well-being. These issues are considered in reference to a pregnant 34-year-old woman who was repeatedly admitted in an intoxicated state.
Alcohol exposure during development causes central nervous system alterations in both humans and animals. Although the most common behavioral manifestation of these alterations is a reduction in cognitive abilities, it is becoming increasingly apparent that deficits in social behavior may be very prevalent sequelae of developmental alcohol exposure. In infancy and early childhood, deficits in attachment behavior and state regulation are seen in both alcohol-exposed people and animals, suggesting that these changes are largely the result of the alcohol exposure rather than maternal behavior. In the periadolescent period, people exposed to alcohol during development show a variety of difficulties in the social domain as measured by checklists filled out by either a parent or teacher. Rats exposed to alcohol during development show changes in play and parenting behaviors. In adulthood, prenatal alcohol exposure is related to high rates of trouble with the law, inappropriate sexual behavior, depression, suicide, and failure to care for children. These high rates all suggest that there may be fundamental problems in the social domain. In other animals, perinatal alcohol exposure alters aggression, active social interactions, social communication and recognition, maternal behavior, and sexual behavior in adults. In conclusion, research suggests that people exposed to alcohol during development may exhibit striking changes in social behavior; the animal research suggests that these changes may be largely the result of the alcohol insult and not the environment.
Adrenalectomy-ovariectomy (adex-ovex) of mother rats resulted in prolonged nest bouts with their young. Glucocorticoid, but not progesterone or aldosterone, replacement therapy to adex-ovex dams limited the duration of maternal nesting bouts by successfully restoring the chronic vulnerability of these mother rats to the acute thermal consequences of huddling with the young. This vulnerability appeared to be due to a chronic elevation of maternal temperature. When the heat load of hormone-disrupted mothers was chronically elevated, the dams were subject to an acute rise in temperature while huddling with their young, and nest bouts were curtailed.
4 successive cohorts of low-income families were randomly assigned either to a home-based intervention program that focused on modeling verbal interaction between mother and child around selected toys and books or to comparison treatments. Large program effects were found on maternal interaction styles in videotaped observations. Small IQ and program-specific effects were found for children in contrast to much larger IQ effects found in earlier research. IQ effects did not appear to have been mediated by changes in maternal behavior. A variation in which toys and books were supplied without home visits was as effective as the full program on IQ but not on maternal behavior. 3 years postprogram , there were no detectable effects in achievement or IQ tests or in first grade teachers' ratings of school adjustment and performance, but IQ and achievement scores were near national norms. Reasons for discrepancies with earlier results are discussed. The results highlight the need for continued experimental evaluation of early intervention programs with safeguards to insure that samples are educationally at risk.
More than half of women who smoke in the USA continue to do so while pregnant. While socioeconomic and demographic factors that distinguish pregnancy quitters from persistent smokers have been identified, less is known about behavioral factors that are associated with persistent smoking. Because smoking during pregnancy is not only an individual, but also a maternal behavior, it may have different behavioral correlates than women's smoking has in general. We propose a conceptual framework in which smoking during pregnancy is viewed as a maternal problem behavior. We explore this conceptualization by examining whether persistent smoking during pregnancy is associated with a pattern of psychosocial risk- and health-compromising behaviors in multiple domains, with pilot data from a small clinic-based sample. Data are presented for 96 predominantly Caucasian, working-class pregnant women recruited from prenatal clinics in the USA. Smoking during pregnancy was measured repeatedly by self-report and biochemical assay. Participants were non-smokers (37%), pregnancy quitters (17%), and persistent smokers (46%). These groups were compared in terms of their history of problem behavior in three domains: interpersonal difficulties, problems in adaptive functioning and problematic health behaviors. With few exceptions, smokers were more likely to have problematic relationships, poorer adaptive functioning and to engage in problematic health behaviors, than both pregnancy quitters and non-smokers. This pattern of problem behavior may interfere with the effectiveness of standard public health prenatal cessation interventions for a sub-group of women. Examining pregnancy smoking as part of a broader matrix of problem behavior may help to identify pregnant women most at risk for persistent smoking and inform the development of targeted interventions.
Psychobiology is the discipline that attempts to integrate the impact of environmental and psychological variables on biological systems. This paper focuses on the psychobiology of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and illustrates several processes that influence the response of the HPA axis. The interaction of the developing rodent or primate with their primary care giver has permanent long-term effects on the HPA axis. Manipulations that alter maternal behavior during critical periods of development permanently modify the HPA axis. The HPA axis can be programmed to be hypo-responsive or hyper-responsive as a function of time and length of maternal separation. In the adult organism, the HPA response to stress is highly dependent on specific psychological factors such as control, predictability, and feedback. In primates, social variables have been shown to diminish or exacerbate the HPA stress response. During the post-natal period of development, the mother appears to actively inhibit the pups' HPA axis. Different aspects of maternal behavior regulate different components of the HPA system.
This study was conducted to provide the basic information for nursing intervention in infant teaching and feeding situation. The subjects were 30 pairs of mother and her infant (9 month) who were normally delivered at 3 university hospital in Seoul area. The data collection was conducted by observation using videotaperecord from September 27, 1989 to February 26, 1990 in their home. The measurement tools used by this researcher were Nursing child Assessment Teaching scale (NCATS) and Nursing child Assessment Feeding Scale (NCAFS) which was developed by Barnard. The higher sum of "yes" score means the higher mother-infant interaction level. Mother-Infant interaction behaviors in both situations were based on 6 subcategories;sensitivity to cue, response to distress, social-emotional growth fostering, cognitive growth fostering, clarity of + cues, and responsiveness to parent. The data collected through above method were analyzed by mean and t-test and the results were as follows. 1. The sum of maternal behavior score was 40.2 out of 50.0 in teaching situation and 37.9 out of 50.0 in feeding situation. Out of the 4 subcategories on maternal behavior in both situation, the highest subcategory was shown by response to infant's distress and the lowest subcategory by cognitive growth fostering. 2. The sum of infant behavior score was 14.7 out of 23 in teaching situation and 17.9 out of 26 in feeding situation. Out of the 2 categories on infant behavior in both situation, the highest sub category was shown by the clarity of infant's cue in both situation. 3. There was a statistical significance between father's educational level and mother-infant interaction in teaching situation; college group was higher than high school group, particularly in category of sensitivity to infant's cue and cognitive growth fostering. 4. There was a statistical significance in teaching situation between mother's educational level and mother-infant interaction; college group was higher than high school group, particularly sensitivity to infant cue, social-emotional growth fostering and cognitive fostering. 5. There was no statistical difference in between parent educational level and mother-infant interaction in feeding situation.
Maternal behaviors within mother-infant games were examined to determine the amount, type, and functional value of maternal helping behaviors. 17 mother-infant pairs were videotaped on monthly visits from 8 to 16 months as they played 5 separate games. 2 of these games, roll the ball and peekaboo, were analyzed in terms of "rounds" of each game. Results show that dyads play more rounds of both games in the first months that infants perform game-relevant behaviors (e.g., returning a ball, performing uncovering or covering-uncovering). Maternal attention-getting and physical "stage-setting" behaviors occur in the early rounds of both games. In roll the ball, maternal hands-out and reinforcement behaviors increase in the months after the child begins to return the ball, while the percentage of rounds in which dyads play nonreturn variants decreases. Infants are more likely to return a ball when mother holds out her hands than when she does not. Infants are also able to perform returning or uncovering in game contexts before they perform similar behaviors in cognitive tests. The general similarity of findings in the peekaboo and roll-the-ball games, in spite of differences in the amounts of scaffolding, attention-getting, stage-setting, and reinforcement behaviors between the 2 games, indicates that the types and functions of maternal helping behaviors may be generalizable to other contexts of mother-infant interactions.
Deficiency of normal estrogen receptor(ER) gene function led to behavioral change in female mice (ERKO females). Maternal behavior as measured by retrieving of pups was reduced. In some cases, pups were killed by the ERKO females, which was not seen in wild-type animals. Aggression toward other females was increased. Female-typical lordosis behavior was reduced for at least two reasons: less response to somatosensory stimuli on the hindquarters, as well as the fact that ERKO females were immediately treated as intruder males by resident 'stud' males and were thus attacked. In sum, disruption of the ER gene led to a pattern of hormonal and neural changes which caused the females to lose their normal female-typical behavior and to behave and be treated more like males.
Estrogen's action in specific brain regions, particularly the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), is necessary for the onset of maternal behavior in the pregnant female rat. There is an increase in estrogen binding in the MPN during pregnancy, and it has been hypothesized that this increase is part of the mechanism by which the brain is readied to support estrogen-dependent maternal behavior. This experiment determines whether an alteration in the levels of estrogen receptor mRNA precedes the increase in estrogen binding to its receptor. Using in situ hybridization, estrogen receptor (ER) mRNA levels were measured in specific brain regions in females on day 8, 16 or 22 of pregnancy or on postpartum day 1 or in non-pregnant females. ER mRNA levels are significantly higher in the MPN in females on day 8 of pregnancy compared with non-pregnant females or with females on day 16. In the ventromedial nucleus, which is important for estrogen's role in postpartum sexual receptivity, there was an increase in ER mRNA levels on day 22 of pregnancy compared with day 16 of pregnancy. These results suggest that ER levels may increase in specific, behaviorally relevant brain regions at critical times during pregnancy through regulation of ER mRNA levels.
Opiate use in teenage populations has been increasing in recent years. The potential impact of exposure to high levels of opiates at a time when reproductive systems are maturing has not been well studied, especially in females. The present study used an animal model of adolescent opiate abuse in females to examine the potential impact of high levels of opiates during puberty on several reproductive parameters, including suckling-induced prolactin secretion. Two groups of juvenile female rats were administered increasing doses of morphine sulfate or saline (s.c.) from age 30-50 days, beginning with a dose of 2.5 mg/kg and achieving a maximal dose of 50 mg/kg. As adults, these females were mated and reared either their own or foster pups. On either postpartum day 5 or 10, following a 4 h separation, suckling-induced prolactin secretion was measured. In addition, on postpartum day 5 maternal behavior latencies were determined. The results demonstrate reduced suckling-induced prolactin secretion on postpartum day 5 in females previously exposed to morphine during pubertal development. These effects were observed in females rearing either their own or fostered pups. These effects were not due to any differences in maternal behavior latencies, as retrieval or crouching latencies were unaffected. In summary, chronic morphine exposure during puberty results in changes in the regulation of prolactin secretion during early lactation, which are observed several weeks after cessation of drug treatment. These data suggest that prior opiate use during puberty can continue to affect the regulation of prolactin secretion into adulthood.
UNLABELLED: To understand the determinants of frightening/frightened and other atypical maternal behavior, the authors studied a sample of 41 inner-city mothers of very young children (ages 8-50 months), the mothers of whom had lifetime histories of interpersonal violent trauma (i.e., physical or sexual abuse, and domestic violence) and related posttraumatic stress. METHOD: The authors measured (1) maternal salivary cortisol levels before and 30 minutes after a videotaped play paradigm with their children, involving two separations and reunions; and (2) cortisol reactivity 30 minutes after separation stress. Data were analyzed using Pearson bivariate correlations, ANOVA, and multiple linear regressions. RESULTS: Salivary cortisol "baseline" values were significantly negatively correlated with childhood interpersonal violent trauma severity (i.e., trauma severity prior to age 16). However, cortisol reactivity was not significantly correlated with interpersonal violent trauma severity at this level of analysis. Although baseline salivary cortisol values were not significantly correlated with current overall psychiatric or depressive symptoms, they were negatively correlated with severity of current posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and with dissociative symptoms. Neither dimensions of negativity nor distortion of maternal attributions showed any significant association with prestress or poststress salivary cortisol levels. Salivary cortisol baseline was negatively correlated with atypical maternal behavior via measurement of the level of disrupted communication, at a trend-level of significance. CONCLUSIONS: Violent trauma-associated dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be a marker for increased risk for intergenerational transmission via parenting behavior with young children. Low salivary cortisol prior to separation stress and blunted cortisol reactivity to separation may also be markers for posttraumatic stress.
The purpose of this investigation was to use an approach targeted specifically on endogenous relaxin to determine the influence of antepartum (days 20-22) relaxin on cervical modifications and birth in the rat. To that end, a monoclonal antibody specific for rat relaxin, designated MCA1, was used to neutralize endogenous relaxin in intact pregnant rats. MCA1 or PBS vehicle was administered iv to intact rats daily from days 20-22 of pregnancy. Cervices were removed at 1200 h on day 22. Cervices obtained from MCA1-treated rats were less extensible than cervices obtained from PBS-treated control rats. Furthermore, wet weight, dry weight, water content, and uronate content were lower in cervices obtained from MCA1-treated rats than in cervices from PBS-treated controls. Birth and maternal behavior of MCA1-treated and PBS-treated control rats were observed continuously from 2100 h on day 22 until day 2 postpartum (d2PP). MCA1-treated rats exhibited significantly prolonged durations of litter delivery as well as reduced incidences of live pups on d2PP compared with controls. There were lower incidences of normal maternal behavior observed at birth and on d1PP with MCA1-treated rats than with control rats. In addition, little or no milk was observed in the abdomen of most live pups of MCA1-treated rats on d2PP, whereas abundant milk was observed in the abdomen of all live pups of control rats. The mean live pup weight on d2PP was lower in the litters of MCA1-treated rats than in control litters. The present study indicates that in the rat endogenous relaxin is needed during the antepartum period for normal cervical growth and extensibility, normal litter delivery, and high postpartum pup survival. This work supports the hypothesis that the influence of endogenous relaxin on birth is attributable, at least in part, to its effects on the cervix.
Both olfactory recognition and maternal experience are important determinants of successful maternal care. Lesions to the central noradrenergic projection to the olfactory bulbs prior to parturition results in cannibalism without producing a general anosmia or gross imparment of maternal behavior. Similar lesions made after parturition and maternal experience are completely without effect. We interpret these findings as providing further evidence for a noradrenergic influence on bulbar networks at parturition which are important for, and have long lasting consequences on, maternal recognition.
The bed nucleus of the accessory olfactory tract (BAOT) is a sexually dimorphic structure which controls the inhibition/disinhibition of the medial preoptic area in the expression of maternal behavior. Therefore, in the present study we investigated sex differences and the modulation of gamma-aminobutiric-acid (GABA) in the BAOT during the first two postpartum days. Four groups of Wistar rats: control males, control females, 0 h postpartum females and 48 h postpartum females, were used in this experiment. Sex differences in glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) and GABA(A) alpha-chain receptor densities were apparent in the BAOT. The hormonal and behavioral postpartum state affects GABAergic activity in the females' BAOT in two ways: firstly, pregnancy and the first two postpartum days induce an increase in GABA(A)-receptor and GAD densities; secondly, the intensity of these activities are greater in the left hemisphere than in the right. These changes might be related to the BAOT's function of inhibiting/disinhibiting maternal behavior.
Regional vital statistics suggest that the Mexican-American population, in spite of low socioeconomic status, has an infant mortality that is very similar to whites. American blacks of similar socioeconomic status have rates that are almost double that of whites. Part of this discrepancy can be explained by lifestyles, maternal behavior, lack of access to health care, and poor nutrition. The study reported here compared the most potent predictor of infant mortality--low birthweight--among low-income black and Mexican-American infants born at Cook County Hospital. The incidence of low birthweight was 16.6 percent for blacks and 5.9 percent for Mexican-Americans, suggesting that the latter group enjoys some sociocultural protection from the effects of urban poverty in the United States. Further efforts to reduce the infant mortality rate in the inner city should be directed at preserving those sociocultural traits that improve pregnancy outcomes and changing those social and economic factors that cause and promote unhealthy maternal behavior.
The suppressive effect of stress on lactation is well acknowledged. Animal models used to study this problem have used primarily acute stressors. As such, they are not adequate for the study of the effect of prolonged stress on lactation. This study aimed at developing a paradigm(s) in rats for the study of the effect on lactation of prolonged exposure to a stressful situation. Two models were examined. The first consisted of a separation paradigm whereby dams had 1, 2, 4, or 6 contacts per day with their pups, but only for a total of 4 h per day. The second model implicated the introduction of a male intruder into the home cage during the 12-h light period. Both protocols were implemented for four consecutive days beginning on Days 10/11 postpartum. Milk release was measured on Day 13/14 postpartum. For both models, milk release was significantly reduced following the preexposure period. During the assessment of milk release, maternal behavior of the experimental and control animals was similar at all times. It is advanced that these two rat models of stress are appropriate for the study of lactation following a prolonged exposure to stress.
Pregnant Long-Evans rats were stressed by crowding, and subsequent mother-infant interactions were described after cross-fostering. Prenatally stressed pups elicited less maternal licking from unstressed foster dams than controls, and previously stressed dams licked unstressed foster pups less than controls. No other differences in mother-infant interactions were detected. Adult offspring reared by foster dams that were stressed during pregnancy were more active in an open field than controls, but prenatally stressed and unstressed animals reared by control dams did not differ. Thus, stress during pregnancy can alter the maternal behavior of stressed dams, and the differential maternal stimulation can affect adult open-field behavior. Because prenatally stressed pups elicit different maternal care, cross-fostering does not eliminate the possibility that maternal stimulation may mediate some prenatal stress effects.