Q:   What are you looking at with your current research?
A:   Well all the evidence we have so far suggests that the very early period is important for the long-term stress responses. But we need much more evidence to actually pinpoint what is exactly going on; when during pregnancy does stress matter, what degree of stress becomes harmful and so on. Our current research is to try and find out more about the long term affects of stress in pregnancy on the behavior of a child, and we're using about ten thousand women who've been followed through pregnancy to actually determine properly whether pre-natal stress as opposed to post-natal does have an effect on the child. We also intend to follow up children who've been born by different methods up to the age of one or two and see how long the different types of delivery actually affect their stress responses. We know it affects up to eight weeks, but does it carry on for one year, two years or for life?

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Q:   Many women feel the need to return to work as soon as possible after having a baby, even working at home. What effects might the stress of juggling work and early motherhood have?
A:   We don't know enough in terms of our changing lifestyles and their effect on the future generation. But I think we do need to do a lot of research to actually find out what our changing lifestyles are doing to us and particularly to our children.

It's clear that from birth, babies are very sensitive to their mother's feelings. If the mother is stressed or depressed, the baby picks up on it, can cry more, [and] you get a bad interaction. We know that if mothers are depressed in the very early weeks or months, this often has an effect on the interaction with the child. And this in turn has long term harmful effects on the development of the child. The children have more behavioral problems, more cognitive problems, the boys may have a lower IQ. So the very early mother-baby interaction is very important for the later development of the child. And a very stressed mother can interfere with this. Alternatively, the good news is that very good mothering early on can actually help to undo some of the possible damage that might have been caused during the fetal period. So that the whole system is very plastic both for benefit and harm in this very early period.

I think that all our research is making us more aware that very early mothering is absolutely crucial. And that perhaps women should take a bit of time off work, certainly in the early months, to make sure that they get a good relationship going with their baby. I think that this has implications for society as a whole and governments, that we need to give women time to establish the relationship with their child, help them to be in as good an emotional state as possible, while they have a new baby. And then go back to work later. I think that politicians maybe have a role to play here, that they ought to be aware that for the sake of the emotional health of future generations, encouraging mothering and parenting is very important.

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