18. Can prenatal stress make a child more sensitive to their environment? With Dr. Sarah Hartman

Shalaka will be interviewing Dr. Sarah Hartman as the second part of a two-part episode. We’ll be aiming to answer the question: Can exposure to prenatal factors program greater sensitivity to environment after birth? We recap what differential susceptibility is, discuss markers like temperament or physiological stress response, and how exposure to prenatal stress might lead to such individuals.

In the post-interview discussion (40:25), Alyson and Shalaka discuss the importance of diversity among humans, how this research can bring comfort and hope to parents of sensitive children or pregnant people experiencing prenatal stress, and the importance of the other parent.

Citations
Hartman S, Freeman SM, Bales KL, Belsky J. Prenatal Stress as a Risk-and an Opportunity-Factor. Psychol Sci. 2018 Apr;29(4):572-580. doi: 10.1177/0956797617739983. Epub 2018 Feb 7. PMID: 29412055; PMCID: PMC6350146.

Hartman S, Belsky J. Prenatal programming of postnatal plasticity revisited-And extended. Dev Psychopathol. 2018 Aug;30(3):825-842. doi: 10.1017/S0954579418000548. PMID: 30068425.

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Prenatal research from Shalaka’s lab and the DREAM BIG consortium:
Dreambigresearch.com
Prenatal Stress and Child Development book (2021):
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-60159-1

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