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Stress Reactivity and Mother-Infant Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Maternal-Infant Stress Reactivity as an Intergenerational Pathway to Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Who can join

As published by the study on ClinicalTrials.gov. "Not stated" means the study hasn't said — ask the study team.

Age
6 Months and older
Sex
Female only
Healthy volunteers
Accepted
Compensation
Not stated

Other requirements are listed under Eligibility below. Only the study team can confirm whether you can join.

What to expect

No one can promise a trial will help you personally — that is what the research is trying to find out.

What participation involves

Not stated in the study description — ask the study team about visits and procedures.

Compensation
Not stated
  • Study-related exams and procedures are typically provided at no cost. This is how many trials work in general — confirm the details for this study with the study team.
  • Participants are monitored closely by the research team throughout the study.
  • Some participants may receive access to an investigational treatment, which is still being studied.
  • Your participation helps researchers learn whether this approach could help future patients.

About this study

In plain language

This study looks at how mothers and babies respond to stress 6 months after birth, after mothers had either mindfulness training during pregnancy or usual care. It will check how these stress responses relate to heart and blood vessel disease risk at 12 months. It is for mothers and babies from an earlier study of women at risk for high blood pressure during pregnancy.

Prenatal Mindfulness training (MT) shows promise as a preventive intervention against hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and may reduce risk for offspring cardiovascular disease (CVD). One proposed mechanism of MT to reduced CVD risk is improved self-regulation following stress. Perhaps the most crucial contributor to the development of self-regulation in the first year is the psychophysiological coregulatory relationship between mother and infant. However, this self-and co-regulation among women exposed to prenatal MT has not been studied and has yet to be examined in relation to CVD risk. The goal of this proposed project is to evaluate maternal-infant physiological reactivity to and recovery from stress at 6 months postpartum following prenatal MT, and to examine the relationship between these maternal infant stress responses and maternal-infant CVD risk at 12 months postpartum. Using a lab-based stress paradigm and well-validated biomarkers of mother and infant CVD risk, the investigators will assess respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart rate at 6 months postpartum for 40 mother-infant dyads who have completed either prenatal MT or a usual care arm of an RCT examining MT for women at risk for HDP. The investigators will compare maternal, infant, and dyadic stress responses by treatment arm. Then, cardiac stress responses will be examined as predictors of maternal and infant biomarkers of CVD risk at 12 months postpartum.

Compensation is read from the study's own description and may be missing — always confirm with the study team.

Eligibility

Who can join

  • You took part in the earlier study and agreed to be contacted about future research.
  • You are not pregnant during this study’s procedures.
  • For the earlier study, you were pregnant with one baby.
  • For the earlier study, you spoke English and were older than 18.
  • For the earlier study, you were less than 20 weeks pregnant when you joined.
  • For the earlier study, your blood pressure was normal when you joined.
  • For the earlier study, you had a moderate to high risk of preeclampsia, a pregnancy problem involving high blood pressure.

Who can't join

  • The earlier study excluded people pregnant with more than one baby.
  • The earlier study excluded people with long-term high blood pressure.
  • The earlier study excluded people who were actively suicidal or had psychosis, a condition that makes it hard to know what is real.
  • The earlier study excluded people who already practiced yoga, meditation, or mindfulness more than once a week.

Simplified for readability. The official criteria below are what the study team uses.

Official eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria: * For the parent RCT study: Inclusion criteria: singleton pregnancy, English speaking, \>18 years old, \<20 weeks' gestation at enrollment, normotensive at enrollment, and criteria consistent with 'moderate' to 'high' risk for preeclampsia based on American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologist guidelines. For the current research study: Participants will be (n=40) individuals from the parent RCT who have consented to be contacted for future research in the parent study and are not pregnant during the mentored research study procedures. Exclusion Criteria: For the parent RCT study: Exclusion criteria: multiple gestations; chronic hypertension; active suicidality or psychosis; ongoing mind-body practice (e.g., yoga, meditation, mindfulness \> once a week). \-

Study sites (1)

RI