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Maternal depression, anxiety, and stress on birth outcomes and childhood health

Guest Editors:
Raquel Costa, PhD, Lusófona University, Portugal
Dawn Kingston, PhD, University of Calgary, Canada
Nicole Letourneau, PhD, RN, FCAHS, FAAN, FCAN, FRSC, University of Calgary, Canada
Tiago Miguel Pinto, PhD, Lusófona University, Portugal


BMC Pediatrics called for submissions to our Collection on Maternal depression, anxiety, and stress on birth outcomes and childhood health.

Depression, anxiety, and stress are prevalent among expectant mothers and can significantly affect their physical and emotional well-being. There is growing evidence to suggest that these maternal mental health conditions may result in long-term consequences, influencing birth outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and infant mortality. Furthermore, maternal mental health can impact early childhood development, cognitive functioning, and mental health outcomes in later life.

This collection aimed to explore the complex relationship between maternal mental health and health of the child, including birth outcomes and long-term child health.   

Meet the Guest Editors

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Raquel Costa: Lusófona University, Portugal

Dr Raquel Costa is Assistant professor at Lusófona University. Costa’s main research focus is on quality of healthcare, perinatal mental health, and infant development. Costa has a strong research track record, experience as a PI of funded National projects, as a research member of funded National and European projects, and as a supervisor of PhD and master dissertations in Psychology and Public Health.
 

Dawn Kingston: University of Calgary, Canada

Dr Dawn Kingston is a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. She is the inaugural holder of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women’s Mental Health Cross-Provincial Research Chair in Women’s Mental Health and a past recipient of the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Her research has focused on improving women’s mental health, particularly during the perinatal period. Dr. Kingston’s upcoming book, Your Brain on Pregnancy, targets pregnant women and their partners, providing education and guidance on managing mental health challenges during the perinatal period.

Nicole Letourneau: University of Calgary, Canada

Dr Nicole Letourneau is Professor in the Faculty of Nursing and Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada. She holds the Parent and Child Mental Health Research Chair, is Scientific Director of the Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA) CIHR Health Research Training Platform, and Director of RESOLVE (Research and Education for Solutions to Violence) Alberta and studies child mental health/development in the context of parental depression, violence and other toxic stressors.

Tiago Miguel Pinto: Lusófona University, Portugal

Dr Tiago Miguel Pinto is Assistant professor at Lusófona University. He has been doing research in the field of mother’s and father's perinatal mental health, family processes, and infant development, namely on the biological and psychological mechanisms underlying the impact of mother’s and father’s perinatal mental health problems on infant development.  Regarding his research track record, he collaborates in several national and international research projects in the field of perinatal mental health and infant development, namely as principal investigator.

About the collection

BMC Pediatrics is calling for submissions to our Collection on Maternal depression, anxiety, and stress on birth outcomes and childhood health.

Depression, anxiety, and stress are prevalent among expectant mothers and can significantly affect their physical and emotional well-being. There is growing evidence to suggest that these maternal mental health conditions may result in long-term consequences, influencing birth outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and infant mortality. Furthermore, maternal mental health can impact early childhood development, cognitive functioning, and mental health outcomes in later life.

This collection aims to explore the complex relationship between maternal mental health and health of the child, including birth outcomes and long-term child health.   

Potential topics of interest include:

  • The mechanisms by which maternal mental health impacts child health outcomes.
  • Long-term impact of perinatal maternal depression, anxiety, and stress on child health, development, and well-being
  • Perinatal mental health screening and intervention strategies to mitigate the impact on infant health outcomes
  • Cross-cultural perspectives of child health outcomes associated with maternal mental health.


We encourage submissions exploring the topic through basic science research in addition to clinical and population level research.  

Image credit: Arsenii / stock.adobe.com

  1. Evidence suggests maternal birth experience impacts infant health. Alterations of the infant’s hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are discussed as one possible underlying mechanism. This study aimed to ...

    Authors: Isabel Jaramillo, Luisa Bergunde, Corinna Müller-Stark, Marlene Karl, Victoria Weise, Clemens Kirschbaum, Susan Garthus-Niegel and Susann Steudte-Schmiedgen
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2025 25:191
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on global mental health, particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as pregnant women. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this population may potentiall...

    Authors: Fang Ye, Jie Chen, Xinying Gao, Hong Lin, Yuanmei Chen, Jing Liu, Qi Sun and Qi Zhang
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2024 24:771
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. A growing body of literature links prenatal mood and substance use to children's cognitive and behavioral development. The relative contribution of these risk factors on children's executive function (EF) in t...

    Authors: Yael K. Rayport, Santiago Morales, Lauren C. Shuffrey, Christine W. Hockett, Katherine Ziegler, Shreya Rao, William P. Fifer, Amy J. Elliott and Ayesha Sania
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2024 24:682
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Maternal depression, anxiety and stress on birth outcomes and childhood health" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.