Popular pages

Photo of contributor

Helena Rutherford

Associate Professor at Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center
Academia
USA

About Helena

Helena Rutherford, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center in New Haven, CT, and the director of the Before and After Baby Lab (The BABL). Her research examines the neuroplasticity of the parental brain during pregnancy and the postpartum period, employing neuroimaging, behavioral, and physiological approaches.

Connect with Helena

Stories by Helena

  • Parenthood & Caregiving

“Becoming a parent is a developmental process.”

Do we become a parent when a child is born, or long before that, when the prospect of parenthood first takes shape?

Available Languages Available in:

Birth of a Parent Podcast

Featured work

Academic Paper

A Role for Fetal Movement in Shaping Maternal Neurodevelopment

Emerging evidence suggests that the maternal brain undergoes significant change during pregnancy, which may serve to prepare the individual for caregiving, including increased maternal responsiveness. It has been proposed that fetal movement may play a role in shaping maternal neurodevelopment during pregnancy, including increasing responsiveness to infant cues. In the current study, we examined links between fetal movement and neural responses to infant cues in 22 primiparous pregnant women.

Academic Paper

Anxiety and neural responses to infant and adult faces during pregnancy

Women are vulnerable to anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum. However, little is known about antenatal anxiety and neural processing of infant-relevant information. In this experiment, the N170, P300, and LPP (late positive potential) event-related potentials were measured from 43 pregnant women as they viewed infant and adult faces, which were either neutral or distressed in expression. Mother’s self-reported anxiety levels were also assessed.

Connect with our global community

Discover new voices and connect with contributors from around the world.

Explore our directory
Photo of contributor Fabrizio Zilibotti
Tuntex Professor of Economics, Yale University
Academia
USA
Photo of contributor Lawrence Haddad
Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Geneva, Switzerland
Academia & Civil society
UK
Photo of contributor Eric A. P. Steegers
Professor and chair, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Academia & Health
Netherlands
Photo of contributor Harriet Shugarman
Leading voice in the parent climate movement - economist, professor, founder of ClimateMama, movement builder & award-winning author
USA
Photo of contributor Johan Bävman
Photographer and copyright holder for the feature Swedish Dads
Arts
Question? Ask ECM
Early Childhood Matters
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance (opens in a new tab)
Pregled privatnosti

Ova web stranica koristi kolačiće tako da vam možemo pružiti najbolje moguće korisničko iskustvo. Podaci o kolačićima pohranjuju se u vašem pregledniku i obavljaju funkcije poput prepoznavanja kod povratka na našu web stranicu i pomaže našem timu da shvati koji su dijelovi web stranice vama najzanimljiviji i najkorisniji.