Grant: Operating Grant: Health Effects of the Alberta Wildfires - Other

Excellent Canadian data shows that maternal stress before, during or just after pregnancy, a highly vulnerable period, triggered by exposure to a natural disaster is associated with a host of negative pregnancy and newborn (brain, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular) outcomes. The Fort McMurray pregnancy rate is 50% higher than elsewhere, so that around 1250 pregnant women and another 600 who will conceive in the six months post-fire were evacuated. The purpose of this proposal is to determine the extent to which a brief, online expressive writing intervention can both foster the resilience (ability to cope) of perinatal women post-trauma and buffer the effects of various types of maternal stress resulting from the wildfires on maternal psychopathology, pregnancy outcomes, and infant development and health. The intervention - short bursts (15-20 min) of expressive writing about one's deepest, innermost feelings about the wildfire each day for four days - is sufficient to allow for emotional disclosure (the active ingredient) that reduces stress and improves outcomes. We will determine how well the intervention supports maternal resilience. This will lead to new strategies to foster resilience among pregnant women who may face unanticipated stressors during the course of a normal pregnancy. We will test the effects of the intervention on various types of stress on maternal and infant outcomes. We will develop a stress score that can predict who is at the greatest risk by measuring a number of factors that are altered by stress, and returned to normal by the intervention. Last, each project of our program of research will involve community and provincial leaders in health, patients' rights, the community and government so that the findings will inform community decision-making in regard to future disasters or emergency evacuations.