TY  - JOUR
A1  - Apanasewicz, Anna
A1  - Groth, Detlef
A1  - Scheffler, Christiane
A1  - Hermanussen, Michael
A1  - Piosek, Magdalena
A1  - Wychowaniec, Patrycja
A1  - Babiszewska, Magdalena
A1  - Barbarska, Olga
A1  - Ziomkiewicz, Anna
T1  - Traumatized women’s infants are bigger than children of mothers without traumas
JF  - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger
N2  - Life history theory predicts that experiencing stress during the early period of life will result in accelerated growth and earlier maturation. Indeed, animal and some human studies documented a faster pace of growth in the offspring of stressed mothers. Recent advances in epigenetics suggest that the effects of early developmental stress might be passed across the generations. However, evidence for such intergenerational transmission is scarce, at least in humans. Here we report the results of the study investigating the association between childhood trauma in mothers and physical growth in their children during the first months of life. Anthropometric and psychological data were collected from 99 mothers and their exclusively breastfed children at the age of 5 months. The mothers completed the Early Life Stress Questionnaire to assess childhood trauma. The questionnaire includes questions about the most traumatic events that they had experienced before the age of 12 years. Infant growth was evaluated based on the anthropometric measurements of weight, length, and head circumference. Also, to control for the size of maternal investment, the composition of breast milk samples taken at the time of infant anthropometric measurements was investigated. The children of mothers with higher early life stress tended to have higher weight and bigger head circumference. The association between infant anthropometrics and early maternal stress was not affected by breast milk composition, suggesting that the effect of maternal stress on infant growth was independent of the size of maternal investment. Our results demonstrate that early maternal trauma may affect the pace of growth in the offspring and, in consequence, lead to a faster life history strategy. This effect might be explained via changes in offspring epigenetics.
KW  - maternal trauma
KW  - early life trauma
KW  - breastfed infant development
KW  - POLS
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1285
SN  - 0003-5548
SN  - 2363-7099
VL  - 77
IS  - 5
SP  - 359
EP  - 374
PB  - Schweizerbart science publishers
CY  - Stuttgart
ER  -