A new study reports paternal anxiety is much higher than previously reported. Findings reveal anxiety in men during the perinatal period was 11%. Previous reports found anxiety in males during this period was under 4%.
Children whose parents use "harsh" punishments, such as spanking, have smaller brain structures during adolescence. The decreased size was most noticeable in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, two areas of the brain associated with emotional processing and the emergence of depression.
THC remains present in breast milk up to six weeks after a woman abstains from marijuana consumption.
Researchers have identified a strain of E.coli in the guts of female mice that cause them to neglect their offspring. The study shows a direct link between the microbiome and maternal behavior.
New research that simultaneously measures brain activity in children and their parents offers insights into bonding.
Mothers with more than one child reported more sleep disruptions that mothers with just one child. The number of children did not impact the quality, or quantity, of sleep for fathers.
Methylation of the oxytocin gene OXT was associated with maternal personal distress, resulting in harsher parenting. OXT methylation was also negatively correlated with gray matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus.
Study reveals one in four women experience symptoms of depression up to three years after giving birth. The risks are greater for women with a history of mood disorders and gestational diabetes.
Researchers scrutinize the long-held perception that new mothers are more forgetful and less attentive. Mothers, they found, have similar alerting and orienting attention, and better executive control attention compared to women without children.
When parents are physically together, they have higher similar responses in prefrontal cortex activity to the sound of their infant crying than when they were physically separated.
Olfaction plays a role in signaling key dynamic changes in the mother-child relationship.
Researchers release new evidence-based recommendations regarding the benefits and risks for breastfeeding mother and infant co-sleeping. The study reports safe bedsharing is possible, and existing evidence does not support the conclusion that co-sleeping in breastfed infants increases the risk for SIDS in the absence of known hazards.
