Grant: Project Grant

Optimal self-regulation, the ability to set limits and manage one's own emotions, attention, and behaviour is vital to health and success in life. Since the building blocks of self-regulation begin to develop at conception, maternal health problems, dietary imbalances, and physical inactivity during pregnancy can lead to self-regulation difficulties in offspring. Many Canadian women consume an unhealthy diet and/or fail to get enough exercise during pregnancy. It is not surprising then that up to 40% of women enter pregnancy overweight and that even more (up to 75%) gain too much weight during pregnancy. Despite these facts, no studies in humans have examined if interventions that optimize maternal diet and exercise during pregnancy can improve the emotional and/or behavioural functioning of their children. To address this knowledge gap, we propose a study that will follow the offspring of the 250 women that will be enrolled in an ongoing study of a nutrition+exercise intervention in pregnant women. The nutrition component of this intervention consists of an individualized nutrition plan that is tailored to women's needs, as well as educational sessions with a dietitian. Our exercise intervention involves women engaging in a structured and monitored walking program. In this study, half of the women will receive our nutrition+exercise program and the other half will get treatment as usual from their healthcare providers. The main objective of this study is to determine if fetal exposure to our maternal intervention leads to improved self-regulation in offspring at 48 months of age compared to women who receive usual pregnancy care. If we are able to show that offspring self-regulation can be improved via our structured and monitored nutrition+exercise program during pregnancy, it could be used to prevent or reduce the severity of behavioural, emotional, and cognitive problems in children early in life.