Researchers exploring early neurodevelopmental risks have linked placental health markers and pregnancy inflammation to elevated ADHD symptoms in young children, offering new clues about how conditions like attention deficit and hyperactivity may begin well before birth.
Expectant parents face an endless stream of guidance from the moment a test turns positive, as though nine months without wine and raw fish were not enough. Yet new scientific inquiries are moving beyond standard maternal checklists to examine the biological environment inside the womb. Two separate research teams have published findings connecting specific prenatal health indicators during pregnancy to subsequent neurodevelopmental differences in young children.
University of Iowa Researchers Track Third-Trimester Placental Growth Factor
At the University of Iowa, investigators turned their attention to the placenta, the organ responsible for supplying blood and nutrients while protecting against toxins. Specifically, researchers tracked placental growth factor, a key protein that serves as a vital biomarker for placental health. Low levels of this protein are already recognized as warning signs for complications such as preeclampsia.
To investigate whether the protein also relates to neurodevelopment, the UI Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology examined banked maternal blood samples collected across all three trimesters from 176 pregnancies in their Perinatal Family Tissue Bank. By linking these biological samples to offspring health records, the team tracked which children later received diagnoses of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.
“In pregnancies that resulted in a child later diagnosed with ADHD, we saw that PlGF levels did not have the typical increase in the third trimester. Each standard-deviation drop in PlGF was associated with 2.6 times higher odds of a later ADHD diagnosis in the child.”
Serena (Banu) Gumusoglu, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry at the University of Iowa
The researchers noted that the association remained evident even after accounting for preeclampsia, growth restriction, and early preterm birth. University of Iowa Health Care researchers emphasized that these results point to subtle placental changes even in pregnancies lacking a clinical diagnosis.
Oregon Health & Science University Examines Inflammation and Postnatal Care
Meanwhile, scientists at Oregon Health & Science University investigated a different prenatal factor: bodily inflammation during pregnancy. Following 302 pregnant individuals and their children, the research team analyzed second-trimester blood draws for signs of inflammation, assessed mother-infant interactions when the infants reached six months of age, and evaluated ADHD symptoms when the children turned three.
According to outlets like Kek Mama, bodily inflammation can stem from various sources such as an infection, smoking, stress, or certain metabolic issues. The findings revealed that higher levels of inflammation during pregnancy correlated with increased ADHD symptoms at age three, but this connection appeared primarily in children who experienced less sensitive caregiving as infants. As described by lead researcher Hanna Gustafsson in Kek Mama, brain development does not halt the moment an infant is born, meaning that post-birth experiences, the surrounding environment, and parental bonds continue to influence a child’s development.
The researchers defined sensitive care simply as trying to perceive and respond to an infant’s needs through play, shared books, smiling, talking quietly, waving back, or offering comfort, noting that parents do not need to analyze every sound all day long or follow a single perfect parenting style.
Both research groups caution that their findings show associations rather than direct causation. Oregon Health & Science University investigators stress that conditions like ADHD are complex, influenced by genetics and various other factors, and that early childhood interactions do not imply fault on the part of mothers. Those scientists observed symptoms in three-year-olds rather than diagnosing actual ADHD, pointing out that a warm, engaged parent-child bond may help children facing an elevated risk without requiring parents to blame themselves.