In humans and other mammals, some females are more likely to experience twin pregnancies than others, but the reasons behind such individual variation are poorly understood. One hypothesis invokes variation in the dynamics of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system, which also regulates foetal growth. Using data from a rural African population living in a highly seasonal environment, we tes...

The literature on international travellers with psychiatric disorders is limited. This perspective article highlights various travel-related aspects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including its aetiological association with maternal migration, the difficulties faced by long-term travelers with autistic children, and the facilitation of international travel for autistic individuals by the tr...

Maternal effects could influence the persistence of species under environmental change, but the adaptive significance of many empirically estimated maternal effects remains unclear. Inferences about the adaptive significance of maternal effects depend on the correlation between maternal and offspring environments, the relative importance of frequency- or density-dependent selection and whether ...

Offspring from females that experience stressful conditions during reproduction often exhibit altered phenotypes and many of these effects are thought to arise owing to increased exposure to maternal glucocorticoids. While embryos of placental vertebrates are known to regulate exposure to maternal glucocorticoids via placental steroid metabolism, much less is known about how and whether egg-lay...

OBJECTIVE To describe maternal care and breastfeeding experience of women suffering intimate partner violence. METHODOGICAL PROCEDURES: A qualitative study was conducted in 11 women suffering intimate partner violence during pregnancy. Women aged 16-41 years were recruited in a hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro between January and March 2005. Data were collected through in-depth interviews...

The aim of the article was to understand how its project entitled "moving maternal, newborn and child evidence into policy in West Africa" funded under Canadian initiative has helped African Health Organisation better build role as a knowledge broker Africa. A case study approach adopted allow for validation or otherwise stated hypotheses using context, actor, process, outcome data. WAHO HPRO b...

The neural system underlying maternal caregiving has often been studied using laboratory rodents and a few other mammalian species. This research shows that the medial preoptic area (mPOA) integrates sensory cues from young that, along with hormonal environmental signals, control acceptance of neonates. mPOA then activates mesolimbic to drive motivation activities. How components this respond e...

Female rats show enhanced maternal responsiveness toward their young if they have had maternal experiences before. This kind of maternal experience-based memory is critically dependent on the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, especially the nucleus accumbens (NA) shell. However, the relative contributions of the two main DA receptor systems (D1 and D2) within the shell have not been delineated. ...

Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously examine maternal psychological distress and social support as mediators linking maternal childhood trauma (MCT) to both maternal and child-reported behavior at 9 years of age in 231 birth mother-child dyads, who were primarily poor, urban, and African American. One half of the mothers (n = 116) reported a history of childhood abuse and neg...