ACEs and Pregnancy: Time to Support All Expectant Mothers

* Abbreviation: ACE — : adverse childhood experience In their article, “Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences and Infant Development,” Racine et al1 add another important piece to what is known about the importance of maternal health and wellness in infant health outcomes. The authors collected data from a questionnaire as a proxy measure of the Adverse Child Experience Scale from nearly 2000 mothers during pregnancy.2 The authors compared these self-reported Adverse Child Experiences Scale scores to later psychosocial risk and hostile parenting when their infants were 4 months of age and to measures of child development at age 12 months. The main finding resonates with all of us who work in this field. Carrying an infant in the womb is not easy work, and the authors claim this job is made even … Address correspondence to James J. Hudziak, MD, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Vermont, 1 South Prospect St, Room 3213, Burlington, VT 05405. E-mail: james.hudziak{at}med.uvm.edu