Grant AD, Erickson EN. Birth, love, and fear: Physiological networks from pregnancy to parenthood.
COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY 2022;
11:100138. [PMID:
35757173 PMCID:
PMC9227990 DOI:
10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100138]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Pregnancy and childbirth are among the most dramatic physiological and emotional transformations of a lifetime. Despite their central importance to human survival, many gaps remain in our understanding of the temporal progression of and mechanisms underlying the transition to new parenthood. The goal of this paper is to outline the physiological and emotional development of the maternal-infant dyad from late pregnancy to the postpartum period, and to provide a framework to investigate this development using non-invasive timeseries. We focus on the interaction among neuroendocrine, emotional, and autonomic outputs in the context of late pregnancy, parturition, and post-partum. We then propose that coupled dynamics in these outputs can be leveraged to map both physiologic and pathologic pregnancy, parturition, and parenthood. This approach could address gaps in our knowledge and enable early detection or prediction of problems, with both personalized depth and broad population scale.
Giving birth and caring for offspring are dynamic processes that can instill both love and fear.
Maternal physiology continuously integrates fetal, social, and environmental cues.
The result is coupled change in hormonal, autonomic nervous, and emotional output.
Coupling may allow internal state to be assessed from peripheral autonomic markers.
Such markers may identify healthy or pathologic pregnancy, parturition, and parenting, and enable creation of real-world tools.
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