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Research

Adverse pregnancy outcomes including maternal mortality, stillbirth, preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction cause millions of deaths each year. More effective interventions are urgently needed. Maternal immunization could be one such intervention protecting the mother and newborn from infection through its pathogen-specific effects.

Research

Positive maternal mental health during the perinatal period contributes to general well-being and positive emotional bonds with the child, encouraging an optimal developmental trajectory. Online interventions to enhance maternal well-being and develop coping skills, such as meditation-based interventions, can be a low-cost way to improve mother and child outcomes.

Research

Growing evidence from preclinical studies, epidemiology, and randomized controlled trials supports a causal role for diet quality in mental disorder risk, and clinical psychiatric guidelines now place diet, along with other life-style behaviors, as foundational treatment targets for mood disorders.

Research

A wide spectrum of high-risk factors in pregnancy can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes or short- or long-term health effects. Despite this, there has been no synthesis of findings on the measurement, potential causes, and health outcomes of multiple high-risk factors in pregnancy. We aimed to address this gap by summarising the existing research on this topic.

Research

Children with wheeze and asthma present with airway epithelial vulnerabilities, such as impaired responses to viral infection. It is postulated that the in utero environment may contribute to the development of airway epithelial vulnerabilities.  

Research

The burden of perinatal mental illness is a significant global concern, affecting approximately 10–20% of women at this stage of life. It is well recognised that Rural Australia has far less health services and mental health specialists per capita than metropolitan regions. 

Research

Maternal psychological distress is related to poorer physical and mental health as well as child developmental problems. Interventions that optimise maternal mental health and wellbeing during the "first 1,000 days" of life should have wide-reaching benefits for the mother and her child.

Research

Although social factors and culture are significant determinants of health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, little is known academically about key interpersonal and social experiences of this population during the perinatal period, or how early attachments are formed through culture. This study addressed this gap in the literature. 

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Mothers with asthma or atopy have a higher likelihood of having autistic children, with maternal immune activation in pregnancy implicated as a mechanism. This study aimed to determine, in a prospective cohort of mothers with asthma and their infants, whether inflammatory gene expression in pregnancy is associated with likelihood of future autism. 

Research

A mother's diet during pregnancy may influence her infant's immune development. However, as potential interactions between components of our dietary intakes can make any nutritional analysis complex, here we took a multi-component dietary analysis approach.