BackgroundRefugee women are almost five times more likely to develop postpartum depression than Canadian-born women. This can be attributed to various difficulties they faced before coming to Canada as well as during resettlement. Moreover, refugee women usually face many obstacles when accessing health services, including language and cultural barriers, as well as unique help-seeking behaviors that are influenced by various cultural and practical factors. There has been a recent, rapid influx of Syrian refugees to Canada, and many of them are childbearing women. However, little is known about the experiences that these women have encountered pre- and post-resettlement, and their perceptions of mental health issues. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand refugee women’s experiences of having a baby in Canada from a mental health perspective.MethodsA mixed methods research design included 12 Syrian refugee women who migrated to Saskatoon in 2015–16 and who were either pregnant or 1 year postpartum. The data were collected during a single focus group discussion and a structured questionnaire.ResultsOur results showed that more than half of participants have depressive symptoms, half of them have anxiety symptoms, and one sixth have PTSD symptoms. Three major themes emerged from the qualitative data: 1) Understanding of maternal depression; 2) Protective factors for mental health; and 3) Barriers to mental health services.ConclusionsMaternal depression is an important feature in Syrian refugee women recently resettled in Canada. Reuniting these women with their families and engaging them in culturally appropriate support programs may improve their mental health outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-017-1433-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundMaternal depression and anxiety have distinct constellations of symptom trajectories, which are associated with factors that may vary between different groups of women. The aim of this study was to identify subgroups of women who exhibit unique longitudinal trajectory patterns of depressive and anxiety symptoms from pregnancy to 5 years postpartum and the antenatal predictors associated with these maternal groups.MethodsThe study used a longitudinal data collected from 615 women in Saskatchewan from pregnancy to 5 years postpartum. Semiparametric group-based models were used to identify latent maternal depressive and anxiety trajectory groups. Multinomial logit models were then used to assess the association between maternal characteristics and the identified latent trajectory groups.ResultsWe identified four trajectory groups of maternal depressive symptoms: low-stable (35%); moderate-stable (54%); moderate-increasing (5%); and high-decreasing (6%), and three trajectory groups of maternal anxiety symptoms: very low-stable (13%); low-stable (58%); and moderate-stable (29%). We also identified several risk factors, most notably history of depression and stress, that were significantly associated with these trajectories.ConclusionHistory of depression and increased stress are significant risk factors that can be identified during regular perinatal visits; therefore, clinicians should inquire about these risk factors to identify women at high risk of ongoing depression or anxiety.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2177-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The aim of this study is to identify subgroups of women who exhibit distinct trajectory patterns of depressive and anxiety disorders from pregnancy to early postpartum and the risk factors associated with the latent trajectory group memberships. Women (n = 615) from the Feelings in Pregnancy and Motherhood (FIP) longitudinal study were followed from early pregnancy to early postpartum for a 7-month period in 2006-2007. The semi-parametric group-based trajectory modeling approach was used to identify the latent trajectory groups. Multinomial logit models were then used to explore the association between latent trajectory group membership and antenatal characteristics. We identified four latent trajectory groups of perinatal depressive symptoms: "low-stable" (49.6%), "moderate-stable" (42.3%), "postpartum" (3.6%), and "antepartum" (4.6%). Significant risk factors associated with these trajectory group memberships were past depression, stress level, ethnicity, the mother's age, and relationship satisfaction. Three latent trajectory groups of perinatal anxiety symptoms were identified: "very low-stable" (8.9%); "low-stable" (60.7%); and "moderate-stable" (30.4%). Significant risk factor associated with these trajectories were past depression, stress level, and income level. Latent trajectory groups of perinatal depressive and anxiety symptoms were identified to uncover potential heterogeneity in populations. Our findings support the need for multiple assessments starting from early pregnancy to the postpartum, which can give some important insights on the characteristics of the women at high symptom burden trajectories for early interventions that may alter the progress of their mental symptoms.

Background Most studies of associations between child growth and cognitive ability were based on size at one or two ages and a single measure of cognition. We aimed to characterize different aspects of early growth and their associations with cognitive outcomes in childhood through adolescence. Methods In a sample of 12 368 Belarusian children born at term, we examined associations of length/height and weight trajectories over the first 6.5 years of life with cognitive ability at 6.5 and 16 years and its change over time. We estimated growth trajectories using two random-effects models—the SuperImposition by Translation and Rotation to model overall patterns of growth and the Jenss-Bayley to distinguish growth in infancy from post infancy. Cognitive ability was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence at 6.5 years and the computerized NeuroTrax test at 16 years. Results Higher length/height between birth and 6.5 years was associated with higher cognitive scores at 6.5 and 16 years {2.7 points [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1, 3.2] and 2.5 points [95% CI: 1.9, 3.0], respectively, per standard deviation [SD] increase}. A 1-SD delay in the childhood height-growth spurt was negatively associated with cognitive scores [–2.4 (95% CI: –3.0, –1.8) at age 6.5; –2.2 (95% CI: –2.7, –1.6) at 16 years]. Birth size and post-infancy growth velocity were positively associated with cognitive scores at both ages. Height trajectories were not associated with the change in cognitive score. Similar results were observed for weight trajectories. Conclusions Among term infants, the overall size, timing of the childhood growth spurt, size at birth and post-infancy growth velocity were all associated with cognitive ability at early-school age and adolescence.

Numerous studies have shown associations between maternal stress and poor birth outcomes, but evidence is unclear for causal inference. Natural disasters provide an opportunity to study effects of quasi-randomized hardship with an accurate measure of onset and duration. In a population-based quasi-experimental study, we examined the effect of maternal exposure to the January 1998 Québec ice storm on birth outcomes by comparing pregnant mothers who lived in an area hard hit by the ice storm with those in two unaffected regions. In a total of 147,349 singleton births between 1995 and 2001, we used a difference-in-differences method to estimate the effects of the ice storm on gestational age at delivery (GA), preterm birth (PTB), weight-for-gestational-age z-scores (BWZ), large for gestational age (LGA), and small for gestational age (SGA). After adjusting for maternal and sociodemographic characteristics, there were no differences between the exposed and the unexposed mothers for birth outcomes. The estimated differences (exposed vs. unexposed) were 0.01 SDs (95% CI: −0.02, 0.05) for BWZ; 0.10% point (95% CI: −0.95%, 1.16%) for SGA; 0.25% point (95% CI: −0.78%, 1.28%) for LGA; −0.01 week (95% CI: −0.07, 0.05) for GA; and 0.16% point (95% CI: −0.66%, 0.97%) for PTB. Neither trimester-specific nor dose–response associations were observed. Overall, exposure to the 1998 Québec ice storm as a proxy for acute maternal stress in pregnancy was not associated with poor birth outcomes. Our results suggest that acute maternal hardship may not have a substantial effect on adverse birth outcomes.

ImportanceAlthough maternal unintentional injury during pregnancy has shown negative impacts on the mother and fetus, the evidence on its long-term associations with children’s neurodevelopment is limited.ObjectiveTo examine the association between maternal unintentional injury and cerebral palsy (CP) in offspring.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis was a population-based, longitudinal, cohort study of all in-hospital live births born between April 1, 2002, and March 31, 2017, in a publicly funded health care system setting of Ontario, Canada. Infants born more than 20 weeks’ gestation were included and followed up until March 31, 2018. Excluded from the analysis were stillbirths, infants with missing or invalid records, and births with missing or invalid birth characteristics. Data were analyzed from March 1 to June 30, 2021.ExposuresMaternal unintentional injury during pregnancy ascertained based on inpatient or emergency department diagnoses.Main Outcomes and MeasuresCP diagnosis between birth and the end of follow-up in 2018 with the CP case definition of a single inpatient or 2 or more outpatient diagnoses at least 2 weeks apart between birth and age 16 years.ResultsOf 2 110 177 children included in this study (mean [SD] gestational age, 38.8 [1.9] weeks; 1 082 520 male [51.3%]), 81 281 (3.9%) were exposed in utero to maternal unintentional injury. During a median (IQR) follow-up time of 8 (4-12) years, 5317 children (0.3%) were diagnosed with CP (292 CP cases [5.5%] were exposed to maternal unintentional injury). The mean incidence rates of CP were 4.36 and 2.93 per 10 000 child-years in the exposed and the unexposed group, respectively. Children exposed to maternal unintentional injury had a modest increase in the risk of CP, compared with those unexposed (hazard ratio [HR], 1.33; 95% CI, 1.18-1.50) after adjusting for maternal sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Severe injuries that resulted in hospitalization and delivery within 1 week from the injury conferred higher risks of CP (adjusted HR, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.29-3.68 and adjusted HR, 3.40; 95% CI, 1.93-6.00, respectively). Results were robust in multiple bias analyses.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this Canadian population-based birth cohort study, in utero exposure to maternal unintentional injury was associated with an increased risk of CP, with a higher risk with more severe injuries. These findings fill an important gap in knowledge on the potential role of maternal injury on children’s neurodevelopment outcomes. Public health professionals and stakeholders should be aware of these potential long-term consequences on offspring when designing programs and providing recommendations about safety during pregnancy. Early monitoring and developmental assessment of children exposed to maternal injury might be warranted.

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Cerebral palsy (CP) is a lifelong disorder of posture and movement caused by damage to the developing brain, and is the most common cause of physical disability in children. 1 The most recent meta-analysis of CP prevalence reported an overall rate of 2.11 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.98-2.25) per 1000 live births; 2 however, the authors noted the limited information on secular trends of CP rate in the existing literature. Studies from European countries have mostly shown slight declines in more recent years. [3][4][5][6] For instance, rates in Sweden have remained stable since 1999 with a slight decline in births between 2007 and 2010, 3 while Norway (1999-2010 births) 4 and Denmark (1999-2007 births) 5 have seen declining trends, as did a multisite European study of earlier birth cohorts . 6 Australian studies have also reported declining trends in multiple states since 1995. [7][8][9]