Women who have additional social and care needs in pregnancy (e.g. social adversity, maternal depression and anxiety) are likely to produce high levels of stress hormones. This has the potential to affect fetal brain development, increase infant reactivity to stress, and impair sensitive mother–infant bonds from developing. These in turn may have long-term effects on children’s health, social and educational outcomes. Parenting interventions show promising improvements to child outcomes; however, there is little evidence of their efficacy in the UK.
