Mother mental health

The health of the baby depends on the health of the mother. Sufficient foliate (a B vitamin) eaten by the mother during pregnancy protects against spina hifida (neural tube defect in the spine), anencephaly (failure for the hrain to develop properly), cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and some mental health problems in the child. (From Cena, E.-R. et al., Calif. Agric., 61, 85, April-June 2007. With permission.)... 

Calder, P. C., Omega-3 fatty acids and inflammatory processes. Nutrients (2010) 2, 355-374. Mozurkewich, E. Chilimigras, J. Klemens, C. Keeton, K. Allbaugh, L. Hamilton, S. Berman, D. Vazquez, D. Marcus, S. Djuric, Z. Vahratian, A., The mothers, Omega-3 and mental health study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2011) 11. 

Discuss Josie s case with the perinatal service they assess and manage women with mental health problems during pregnancy and in the year post-partum. They may offer in-reach, telephone advice, or assessment for a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). 

Despite the large amount of detailed information on social, environmental and familial factors available from lead studies, there has been little investigation of the relationship of these factors with behaviour measures. For example, factors such as the mother s mental health, and the quality of the parental marital relationship, have been shown to be highly associated with mothers ratings on the Conners scale. Teachers ratings have been shown to be sensitive to the family type (single-parent or not) (Smith, 1988). No studies have controlled for factors such as these. 

Many facets of the family and social environment are potentially related to a child s IQ. Some are simple factual items, e.g. family size, sex of child. Others, e.g. mother s IQ, can be quantified using standard procedures. However, information about the family s circumstances can be obtained only by a structured interview of the mother. Hence several measures (e.g. parental interest in the child, quality of marital relationships, mother s mental health) have been defined by combining the mother s responses to specific questions at interview into a quantifiable score. It is impossible to summarize perfectly such complex issues. Nevertheless, it is important to characterize such influences on child IQ as best as one can. The principal confounding factors used in this study are now described. All confounders were chosen because of their potential relationship with child IQ, rather than any direct association with lead exposure per se ... 

Mother s mental health was assessed by a questionnaire on neurotic and depressive symptoms, and by interview questions on depression, suicidal thoughts, psychiatric treatment, anxiety, and personality disorders. High scores are indicative of mental ill-health. 

In many cases, UPD likely has no effect on health or development. Because most genes are not imprinted, it doesn t matter if a person inherits both copies from one parent instead of one copy from each parent. In some cases, however, it does make a difference whether a gene is inherited from a person s mother or father. A person with UPD may lack any active copies of essential genes that undergo genomic imprinting. This loss of gene function can lead to delayed development, mental retardation, or other medical problems. 

The quality of the mother s milk can directly influence the health of the baby. Generally speaking, the milk of a mentally and physically healthy mother nourishes and promotes the development of her baby. A mother who breast-feeds her baby should be aware of the following points ... 

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a set of birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. The term FAS was coined in 1973 by Jones and Smith in their seminal article that described the constellation of birth defects that characterize FAS in children born to mothers known to have consumed alcohol during pregnancy. FAS is considered the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. The annual cost of FAS according to the 10th Special Report to the US Congress on Alcohol and Health estimated the annual cost of FAS in 1998 to be 2.8 billion. 

Hebei, J. R., Kinch, D. and Armstrong, E. (1976). Mental capability of children exposed to lead pollution. Br. J. Preventive Social Med., 30, 170 Hejtmancik, M. R., Dawson, E. B. and Williams, B. J. (1982). Tissue distribution of lead in rat pups nourished by lead poisoned mothers. J. Toxicol. Env. Health, 9, 77... 

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