For two years, the interdisciplinary Project IGNITE has followed 1,000 pregnant individuals and their children to learn more about what role environmental factors play in preterm birth, poor pregnancy outcomes, and social and emotional development. April 2020 was a confusing and uncertain time. Just weeks after the emergence of the first U.S. cases of COVID-19,For two years, the interdisciplinary Project IGNITE has followed 1,000 pregnant individuals and their children to learn more about what role environmental factors play in preterm birth, poor pregnancy outcomes, and social and emotional development. April 2020 was a confusing and uncertain time. Just weeks after the emergence of the first U.S. cases of COVID-19, » The FINANCIAL News Health&Beauty
PHILADELPHIA — First-time mom Liz Lockerman prepped to breastfeed by taking classes, reading books and practicing different baby-holding positions. She even bought a freezer for the basement, in anticipation of
PHILADELPHIA First-time mom Liz Lockerman prepped to breastfeed by taking classes, reading books and practicing different baby-holding positions. She even bought a freezer for the basement, in anticipation of building a stash of frozen breast milk for when she returned to work.
WHYY
By
(Achi Studio/BigStock)
For the past pandemic year, everyone has been worried about somebody, it seems.
Dr. Wanjiku Njoroge has been worried about new mothers in particular, and the potential long-term consequences of living against the backdrop of COVID-19.
“Our immediate concern is not just the mom’s mental health,” said Njoroge, “but how that mom’s health is impacting their baby … and so we’re trying to understand if there are resources that families have access to or that we can put into place that will help.”
Along with Sara Kornfield, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Njoroge belongs to IGNITE, a multidisciplinary research group that represents a collaboration between the Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBi), which studies how the brain and behavior develop and change over time and in response to different illnesses, and Penn’s Maternal and Child Health Research Center. Njoroge is an infant/preschoo