Do pregnancy and childbirth adversities predict infant crying and colic? Findings and recommendations

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do pregnancy and childbirth adversities predict infant crying and colic?

T2 - Findings and recommendations

AU - St James-Roberts, Ian

AU - Conroy, Sue

AU - Conroy, Susan

PY - 2005/4

Y1 - 2005/4

N2 - Bouts of unexplained crying in 1- to 3-month-old infants are a common problem for parents and health services. One proposed explanation has linked the crying to preceding adversities, such as maternal stress and cigarette smoking during pregnancy and complications during childbirth. In the first part of this review, we argue that studies of these links have methodological shortcomings, and make recommendations about the safeguards needed to overcome these shortcomings. In part two, we present a study that assesses the relations between adversity indices and validated measures of crying in two separate cohorts of infants. Four indices of childbirth adversity predicted infant crying separately and cumulatively in cohort 1, but not in cohort 2. We conclude that there is a need for further research that includes replication and other safeguards. Infant crying is a highly emotional issue for many parents. Before researchers add to their burden by claiming that maternal prenatal anxiety, cigarette smoking, or labour medication, contribute to their baby's crying, we need to be sure of our grounds.

AB - Bouts of unexplained crying in 1- to 3-month-old infants are a common problem for parents and health services. One proposed explanation has linked the crying to preceding adversities, such as maternal stress and cigarette smoking during pregnancy and complications during childbirth. In the first part of this review, we argue that studies of these links have methodological shortcomings, and make recommendations about the safeguards needed to overcome these shortcomings. In part two, we present a study that assesses the relations between adversity indices and validated measures of crying in two separate cohorts of infants. Four indices of childbirth adversity predicted infant crying separately and cumulatively in cohort 1, but not in cohort 2. We conclude that there is a need for further research that includes replication and other safeguards. Infant crying is a highly emotional issue for many parents. Before researchers add to their burden by claiming that maternal prenatal anxiety, cigarette smoking, or labour medication, contribute to their baby's crying, we need to be sure of our grounds.

KW - Adult

KW - Chi-Square Distribution

KW - Cohort Studies

KW - Colic

KW - Crying

KW - Female

KW - Health Planning Guidelines

KW - Humans

KW - Infant

KW - Infant Behavior

KW - Infant, Newborn

KW - Mother-Child Relations

KW - Obstetric Labor Complications

KW - Pregnancy

KW - Pregnancy Complications

U2 - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.01.001

DO - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.01.001

M3 - Article

C2 - 15811501

SN - 0149-7634

VL - 29

SP - 313

EP - 320

JO - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

JF - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

IS - 2

ER -