World-renowned pregnancy research project celebrates 2,000th research article

The 2,000th research paper was published from data collected as part of a single health study, conducted for nearly 30 years and involving three generations of participants.

More than 14,000 women from southwestern England were recruited to participate in the innovative project called Children of the 90s between April 1991 and December 1992.

Research on women, their partners and children remains the most detailed of its kind in the world – with more than 1.2 million biological samples taken.

These include blood, urine, placenta and cord blood, meconium, bad milk, baby teeth, saliva and skin biopsies.

In 2012, the study was opened to the children of the original babies and there are now 900 participants in this new cohort, called Children's Children of the 90s.

The latest article – 2,000 in the study – examined for the first time the differences between the original mothers recruited in the 1990s and the generation of their children.

Data for pregnant women from 2012 to 2018 were compared to data for mothers of the same age, aged 19 to 26 years.

The main findings are that the current generation of mothers is more educated and less likely to smoke during pregnancy, but has higher rates of depression.

Their children are more likely to be delivered by caesarean section, heavier at birth and badfed.

Professor Deborah Lawler, Chief Scientist for Children of the Nineties, said: "The Bristol children of the '90s are particularly unique in that they are committed to whole families from the start and are now the only study in the world with detailed genetic, biological and detailed badyzes. lifestyle, social, cultural, educational and clinical data over three generations.

"Our profile illustrates how families are formed over the generations and how the study uses new technologies and tools, such as continuous glucose monitoring, parent-child interactions filmed by a main camera at home , and discrete digital sensors in smart watches and phones to capture. life as it happens. "

The paper reveals that the risk of prenatal depressive symptoms is 50% higher among pregnant women from 2012 to 2015, compared to their mother's generation.

Children of mothers who had had such symptoms in the 1990s were three times more likely to meet them.

Preliminary badysis of the data suggests that the current generation of pregnant women is slightly younger – with an average age of 23 in the 1990s and 21 in the 2010 data.

Babies weighed an average of 7 lbs. And 6 oz. In the 1990s, while babies born in the last generation weighed an average of 7 lbs.

Pregnant women today are more educated than their mothers: 54% of them have reached level A or higher, compared to 19% for the previous generation.

The number of maternal smokers during pregnancy was reduced from 39% to 16%.

In the 1990s, 14% of the babies in the study were born by caesarean section, compared to 19.3% in the most recent births.

Breastfeeding rates have also increased, from 67% for mothers to 80% for their daughters.

Professor Nic Timpson, principal investigator for Children of the 90s, described the 2000th document as a "milestone".

"The next five to ten years is a fascinating opportunity to learn even more about the important events surrounding a new pregnancy and its impact on health," he said.

Since the beginning of the Children of the 90s project, the data has yielded results on a wide range of topics.

These include diet and fitness, parenting patterns, autism, allergies, self-injury and the impact of genes, the environment and major events. life on physical and mental health.

Future research will focus on factors affecting the health of a newborn, comparisons of intergenerational maternal health and the implications of stress on families, including fathers.

Parents and their children can be recruited for study, or return, at any age, although most of them join during pregnancy.

Their data are collected during infancy, childhood and adulthood through regular clinics, home badessments and questionnaires.

Children of the 90s is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Council of Medical Research and the University of Bristol.