Maternal and Child Health Journal最新文献

{"title":"Association Between Infant-Mother Room-Sharing and Symptoms of Postpartum Depression: A Population-Based Study.","authors":"Sravya Patibandla, Zelalem T Haile","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04073-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04073-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to (1) examine the relationship between infant-mother room-sharing and postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms and (2) determine whether the relationship between infant-mother room-sharing and PPD symptoms varies by other maternal or infant characteristics.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This cross-sectional study utilized de-identified secondary data from the 2016-2019 Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS) (N=105,144). Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the characteristics of the study sample. Rao-Scott chi-square tests were used to examine differences in PPD symptoms and infant-mother room-sharing by maternal and infant characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the independent association between infant sleeping arrangements and PPD symptoms. Pairwise interaction between infant sleeping arrangement and each covariate were included in the regression model, and stratified analyses were performed for variables with significant pairwise interactions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The prevalence of PPD symptoms was 11.7%, and 79.5% reported that their infant sleeps in the same room. Significant pairwise interactions were found between infant-mother room-sharing and marital status, education, insurance, and receipt of WIC food assistance on PPD symptoms. The odds of having PPD symptoms were higher in those whose infants shared the same room compared to those whose infants slept in a different room. However, the observed association was present only in the subgroups of participants who were married, had greater than a high school level of education, had private insurance, and did not receive WIC food assistance during pregnancy.</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>Findings suggest that infant-mother room-sharing is independently associated with increased odds of PPD symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"515-526"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12006247/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143671522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adequate Prenatal Care and Maternal Morbidity Among Birthing People with Preexisting Comorbidities.","authors":"Laura Chaves Cerdas","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04069-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04069-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Preexisting comorbidities can make the pregnancy experience difficult. Prenatal care has been suggested as a mechanism to identify and control preexisting conditions and prevent adverse maternal outcomes. Maternal morbidity encompasses health conditions attributed to and/or aggravated by pregnancy and childbirth that negatively impact the birthing person's well-being.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using North Carolina's birth records for 2011-2019, this analysis employs multivariate logistic regression to examine whether adequate prenatal care reduces the likelihood of maternal morbidity outcomes. The analysis examines both the overall birthing population (n = 1,020,639) and the birthing population with preexisting diabetes and/or hypertension (n = 29,230).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Having inadequate prenatal care increases the probability of experiencing maternal morbidity outcomes by 7.2% (OR = 1.072, 95%CI:1.01-1.13) compared to having adequate prenatal care. The effect is more pronounced among individuals with preexisting diabetes and/or hypertension, where having inadequate prenatal care increases the probability of maternal morbidity outcomes by 45.6% (OR = 1.456, 95% CI: 1.03-2.07) compared to those with adequate prenatal care.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>These results suggest that adequate prenatal care may help prevent maternal morbidity outcomes across the birthing population, with particularly strong protective effects for those with preexisting conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"504-514"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing Prenatal Alcohol Exposure History for Pediatric Patients: Practices Among U.S. Clinicians.","authors":"Janae Dunkley, Nicholas P Deputy, Clark H Denny, Jacquelyn Bertrand, Shana Godfred-Cato, Shin Y Kim","doi":"10.1007/s10995-024-04015-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-024-04015-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends clinicians who treat pediatric patients screen for prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) to facilitate the identification of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and promote timely access to behavioral and cognitive interventions. We evaluated how frequently clinicians inquire about PAE in their pediatric patient interactions and the methods used to ascertain this information.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyzed data from the Fall 2020 DocStyles survey, a web-based survey of primary healthcare professionals (n = 1754). Distributions for frequency of assessing PAE history for five pediatric populations and the methods used were calculated by clinician specialty (family practitioners [FP], pediatricians, and nurse practitioners/physician assistants [NP/PAs]) and overall. Chi-square and Bonferroni post-hoc tests determined whether frequency of assessing PAE history varied by specialty.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Among 779 clinicians serving pediatric patients, approximately 70.5%, 63.0%, and 60.7% reported often/always obtaining PAE history from parents of children with developmental/behavioral issues, adopted/foster children, and newborns, respectively. By contrast, less than half of respondents reported often/always collecting this information from parents of infants (47.6%) and new patients (38.2%). Most respondents reported collecting PAE history through interviews conducted by physicians or physician assistants (69.7%). Obtaining PAE history varied by specialty; pediatricians (71.5%) were more likely to collect PAE history for adopted/foster children when compared to FPs (57.7%, p = 0.003).</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>PAE history is not routinely obtained for pediatric patients. These findings highlight the need for trainings and practice supports to aid clinicians in identifying and treating children at-risk of FASDs.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"449-456"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12005974/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142683067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating Associations Among Maternal ACEs, Perinatal Depression, and Infant Experiences of Adversity.","authors":"Samantha Addante, Lucia Ciciolla, Amanda Baraldi, Karina M Shreffler","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04079-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04079-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The growing literature on the intergenerational transmission of childhood adversity highlights the need to identify potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between maternal and infant adversity. This study examines prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms as mediators between maternal ACEs and postpartum infant experiences of adversity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A diverse sample of 168 low-income, pregnant women (39% white) were recruited from urban prenatal clinics and followed for one-year post childbirth. Maternal childhood adversity and prenatal depressive symptoms were assessed during pregnancy, postpartum depressive symptoms were assessed at 6 months postpartum, and infant experiences of adversity at 12 months postpartum.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The total indirect effect of maternal ACEs on infant experiences of adversity through prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms was significant, indicating that these symptoms collectively mediate this relationship. Additionally, our results demonstrated a mediated pathway in which maternal ACEs contributed directly to prenatal depression, which in turn indirectly influenced postpartum depression and infant experiences of adversity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Findings provide evidence for perinatal depressive symptoms as a potential mechanism that influences infant exposure to adverse experiences. Future research should explore these pathways in larger, more robust samples to clarify the role of postpartum depressive symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"563-571"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12124230/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143701814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"State-Level Spending on Children Associated with Unequal Benefits to School Readiness.","authors":"Taryn W Morrissey, Katherine Engel, Margot I Jackson","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04068-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04068-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To examine associations between state-level public investments in programming for children and parents' reports of their children's kindergarten readiness.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We use regression approaches with publicly available, nationally representative data to examine how time and state variation in public spending on children relates to parents' concerns about children's development. We link data on annual state-level spending on health and early learning from the Urban Institute's State-by-State Spending on Kids Dataset and the National Institute for Early Education Research to child-level data from the 2003/2004, 2007/2008, and 2011/2012 waves of the National Survey of Children's Health (NCHS), focusing on a subsample of parents with one or more children under age six (N = 56,736).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Child-related public spending on both health and early education is associated with decreases in parents' concerns about their children's physical health and motor development. A 15% increase in average health spending and early education spending per child per year is associated with a reduction in parents' concerns about children's health and motor development of about 3% and 2% of a standard deviation (SD), respectively. Associations between spending and concerns about early learning and social-emotional development are negative but not significant. Among socioeconomically disadvantaged or racial and ethnic minority parents, spending is associated with smaller reductions in concerns.</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>Public spending on children is associated with fewer parents' concerns about their children's development, but less so among disadvantaged families. It is possible that public spending levels are not adequate to narrow disparities in early opportunity and outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"494-503"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12006267/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143415946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perceived Stress and Early Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in Women with Recent GDM: Implications for Postpartum Lifestyle Programs.","authors":"Jennifer M Dias, Estelle C Kelty, Jacinda M Nicklas, John T Doucette, Sue E Levkoff, Ellen W Seely","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04045-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04045-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To inform the development and adaptation of lifestyle programs to prevent type 2 diabetes, we sought to identify factors associated with depressive symptoms in the early postpartum period among women with recent gestational diabetes (GDM).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Participants are from the Balance after Baby Intervention (BABI) study, a two-year randomized clinical trial of a lifestyle program for women with recent GDM conducted in Boston, MA, and Denver, CO between 2016 and 2019. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were administered at an average of 8-weeks postpartum. We defined an EPDS score of ≥ 9 as depressive symptoms and reviewed medical records for medical history. We conducted bivariate analyses to identify predictors of postpartum depressive symptoms, then modeled the odds of postpartum depressive symptoms using multivariable logistic regression and selected the best fit model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our analysis included 181 women. Thirty-five (19%) scored ≥ 9 on the EPDS. While both perceived stress and whether this was the first pregnancy complicated by GDM were significant in the bivariate analysis, only perceived stress remained a significant predictor of postpartum depressive symptoms in the multivariate regression model (OR 4.34, 95% CI [2.58-7.31]). The effect of first GDM pregnancy was no longer significant in the multivariate model (OR 2.00, 95% CI [0.63-6.33]). Additionally, a mediation model determined that perceived stress fully mediated the effect of first GDM pregnancy on depressive symptoms (Effect ratio, 0.5507/1.5377 = 0.358, p = 0.036).</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>Perceived stress was predictive of postpartum depressive symptoms in women with recent GDM and was found to mediate the relationship between first pregnancy complicated by GDM and postpartum depressive symptoms. Addressing perceived stress in the early postpartum period may be an important target for future lifestyle programs to maximize diabetes prevention efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"465-471"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143366037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Childbirth Experience Survey (CBEX): An Analysis of Qualitative Survey data.","authors":"Samia Saeb, Lisa M Korst, Ferina Farahnik, Jeanette McCulloch, Naomi Greene, Moshe Fridman, Kimberly D Gregory","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04043-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04043-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In collaboration with community research partners, a national cross-sectional online Childbirth Experience Survey (CBEX) of pregnant and postpartum birthing people was administered in 2016. The linked antepartum-postpartum survey included items across 18 domains (e.g., labor management, pain management, newborn care and feeding), and identified 23 childbirth-specific postpartum patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that were associated with hospital satisfaction. CBEX was implemented in 16 California hospitals to identify hospital-specific opportunities for improvement in care. We analyzed postpartum qualitative survey responses (1) to evaluate the content validity to test the representativeness of existing CBEX domains, (2) to assess for any potential new domains or topics of interest within existing domains, and (3) to use these data to provide hospitals with actionable information for practice improvement.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This was an analysis of qualitative survey data based on the following CBEX item: \"Is there anything else you would like to share about your birth experience?\" Patients could provide multiple comments. Using Atlas.ti Version 8, we mapped participant responses to the 18 existing CBEX domains.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of 525 surveys completed between Oct 2018 and Sept 2020, 172 patients responded to the qualitative item. A total of 235 comments were analyzed and all were able to be mapped to the 18 domains. Qualitative responses highlighted subtleties within several CBEX domains: (1) labor management: pressure from the care team to have a labor induction; (2) pain management: epidural effectiveness, timing, dosage, and education; (3) empathy and respect: issues related to students and residents; and (4) newborn feeding: rough physical handling of patients by nurses, specifically during lactation consults.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>CBEX survey data is currently being utilized in hospitals to inform childbirth-specific quality improvement initiatives. By capturing detailed voluntary participant responses, CBEX provides the opportunity to document and explore nuanced aspects of the childbirth experience and subtleties that may be contributing to maternal dissatisfaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"457-464"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12006255/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143190936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of Group Therapy Intervention for Anxiety and Depression in the Postnatal Period.","authors":"Jessica Appleton, Cathrine Fowler, Lisiane Latouche, Jenny Smit, Margaret Booker, Greg Fairbrother","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04076-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10995-025-04076-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Effective interventions for the prevention and treatment of postnatal depression and anxiety are important for family functioning and infant development. Group psychotherapy is one such intervention used in the postnatal period. This evaluation tests the efficacy of an eight-week group psychotherapy on participants' symptoms of postnatal depression and anxiety. The study also reports on the addition of a sequential attachment-based parenting program on participants' symptoms of depression and anxiety.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study setting was a child and family health service in New South Wales, Australia. 141 women participating in a group psychotherapy program consented to participate in the study. A pre-test post-test design with four week follow up was used. Depression was measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and anxiety with the anxiety subscale (EPDS-3a). Repeated measures analysis of variance and multiple factorial mixed analysis of variance were conducted.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mean EPDS score reduced significantly from 14.11 pre-intervention to 9.99 (p < .001). The mean EPDS-3a score reduced significantly from 5.68 pre-intervention to 4.37 (p < .001). These improvements were still present four weeks after completion of the program at a 'group reunion' session. The addition of a sequential attachment-based parenting program was not shown to be effective in further reducing symptoms of depression or anxiety (p =.183).</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>These findings support the efficacy of group psychotherapy interventions for reducing both depression and anxiety symptoms in the postnatal period. This intervention demonstrated lower depression symptoms in the post test compared to the pre-test periods for women with and without previous history of mental illness and those with varied baseline depression symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":"537-548"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12006229/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social and Economic Correlates of Prenatal Depression in Rural Bangladeshi Women.","authors":"H M Laughlin, K Khan, F Rashid, A Scarbrough, J R Bick","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04087-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-025-04087-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Prevalence rates of perinatal depression are especially high among women living in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) when compared to higher-income countries. This is especially true for women living in Bangladesh, an LMIC in South Asia, a country that has limited mental health infrastructure and high rates of poverty. Women living in rural, impoverished communities in Bangladesh have been identified as being at high risk for prenatal depression. However, there is limited understanding of variability of prevalence rates across rural communities. To address this gap in understanding, we examined prevalence rates and correlates of prenatal depression among women living in two rural Bangladesh communities, Matlab and Ariahizar.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>During a prenatal health care visit, 60 women in two rural communities in Bangladesh, completed a survey battery asking about household income, education, depression symptoms, autonomy over household technology, and financial decision-making ability.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>On average, prenatal depression was experienced by 31.6%, of women enrolled in this study, although rates varied significantly across communities. Around 50% of all women in the higher-risk, more underserved, Arihaizar community experienced clinically significant symptoms of prenatal depression in comparison with only 13.3% of women who experienced clinically significant levels of prenatal depression in Matlab, a higher resourced rural community. Across both communities, perceived autonomy and independence (based on reports of having control over resources in the home) were associated with lower depression symptoms.</p><p><strong>Conclusions for practice: </strong>Prevalence of prenatal depression is highest in the most underserved communities. Additionally, we found preliminary associations between women's autonomy and depression during pregnancy.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preconception Physical Activity and Maternal Health Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Studies from 2016-2025.","authors":"Kadeeja S Murrell, Rodney P Joseph","doi":"10.1007/s10995-025-04086-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-025-04086-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Preconception physical activity may lower the risk of adverse maternal health outcomes. This integrative review examined the relationship between preconception physical activity and maternal health outcomes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Six electronic databases (i.e., Cochrane Library, PubMed, Science Direct, PsycInfo, SAGE Journals, and Sports Discus) were searched for relevant articles. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they were (1) published between January 1, 2016, and January 9, 2025, in an English-language peer-reviewed journal; (2) included a measure of preconception physical activity; and (3) reported maternal health outcomes during or after birth.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Search procedures retrieved a total of 3608 articles. After a thorough screening process, seven articles met the inclusion criteria of this review. Five articles reported data from prospective cohort studies, and two articles employed cross-sectional designs. Outcomes examined included gestational hypertension (n = 3), gestational diabetes/glucose metabolism (n = 4), preeclampsia (n = 2), infant birth weight (n = 2), pregnancy weight gain (n = 1), duration of pregnancy (n = 1), and mode of delivery (n = 1). Higher preconception physical activity engagement was linked to reduced risks of gestational hypertension (n = 1), gestational diabetes/glucose metabolism (n = 2), preeclampsia (n = 2), low birth weight (n = 1), excessive pregnancy weight gain (n = 1), and post-term delivery (n = 1). Three studies found greater risk reduction with increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Engaging in regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during preconception is associated with a reduced risk of numerous adverse maternal health outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48367,"journal":{"name":"Maternal and Child Health Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143659051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}