A Review of Factors that Serve to Protect Pregnant and Post-partum Women from Negative Outcomes Associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this review is to examine factors, during the perinatal period, that serve to protect women and infants from poor mental or physical outcomes most commonly associated with maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Methods: The electronic databases of PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL and Web of Science were searched. The searches were conducted using the following mesh terms and keywords: ('adverse childhood experiences' or 'ACEs') and ('protective factor' or 'social support' or 'buffer' or 'resilience') and ('pregnan*' or 'prenatal' or 'postpartum' or 'maternal' or 'antenatal'). Studies that examined the association of maternal ACEs and protective factors during the perinatal period were included. A total of 317d articles were screened and 19 are included in this review. The quality of the articles was evaluated with the Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale (NOS).

Results and conclusion: This review indicates a positive association between maternal ACEs and protective perinatal factors including social support, resiliency and positive childhood experiences.

Keywords: Buffer; Maternal adverse childhood experiences; Protective factor; Resilience; Social support.