Many factors, including genetics, stress, and environmental exposure, can shape pregnancy and fetal development. Physicians who care for pregnant patients and their babies before and after birth work ...

A new study in the journal Nature Mental Health explores how a mother’s positive state of mind during pregnancy affects the structure and function of the developing fetal brain by measuring these ...

The development of a child begins during pregnancy, when prenatal environmental factors and genetic influences interact to shape fetal development and long-term health outcomes. Increasing evidence ...

Maternal stress could leave epigenetic imprints on genes in the placenta associated with cortisol -- a necessary hormone for fetal development -- and this would affect the baby's development from very ...