Post-traumatic stress disorder is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) as a psychological disorder. Moreover, poor maternal mental health can severely impact mother-child interactions, which in turn can greatly impact the mental wellbeing of children (Letourneau et al., 2012). Firstly, there are possible fetal programming pathways that may physiologically predispose the unborn baby to future mental health concerns (Swaab, Bao, & Lucassen, 2005). The latter may be due to various reasons. These include neurological, cognitive, and immune impacts on the mother elevated risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth and low birthweight increased risk of postpartum depression and other postpartum mental health problems in the mother, which can negatively impact child behavioural and cognitive development as well as general family wellbeing and increased risk of mental health problems in the child later in life (Bowen & Muhajarine, 2006a Swaab, Bao, & Lucassen, 2005). Prenatal depression and other mental health issues during pregnancy are recognized to have potentially serious maternal, fetal, and child health consequences. In this regard, further empirical research on intergenerational trauma and on healing are warranted, to permit an evidence-based approach. Given the importance of pregnant women’s mental health to both maternal and child health outcomes, including mental health trajectories for children and youth, it is clear that interventions, programs, and services for pregnant Aboriginal women need to be designed to explicitly facilitate healing from intergenerational trauma. Pregnancy has been argued to be a particularly meaningful intervention point to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma transmission. Various scholars have suggested that healing from intergenerational trauma is best achieved through a combination of mainstream psychotherapies and culturally-entrenched healing practices, conducted in culturally safe settings. This paper has the following objectives: to define intergenerational trauma and contextualize it in understanding the mental health of pregnant and parenting Aboriginal women to summarize individual-level and population-level approaches to promoting mental health and examine their congruence with the needs of Aboriginal populations and to discuss the importance of targeting intergenerational trauma in both individual-level and population-level interventions for pregnant Aboriginal women. ![]() Poor maternal mental health during pregnancy can have serious health consequences for the mother, the baby, and the whole family these include impacting the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural development of children and youth. ![]() Residential schools and other legacies of colonization continue to impact Aboriginal populations, who have higher rates of mental health concerns. Intergenerational trauma explains why populations subjected to long-term and mass trauma show a higher prevalence of disease, even several generations after the original events.
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