“Barker’s hypothesis” emerged almost 25 years ago from epidemiological studies of birth and death records that revealed a high geographic correlation between rates of infant mortality and certain classes of later adult deaths as well as an association between birthweight and rates of adult death from ischemic heart disease. These observations led to a theory that undernutrition during gestation was an important early origin of adult cardiac and metabolic disorders due to fetal programming that permanently shaped the body’s structure, function, and metabolism and contributed to adult disease. This theory stimulated interest in the fetal origins of adult disorders, which expanded and coalesced ~5 years ago with the formation of an international society for developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). Here we review a few examples of the many emergent themes of the DOHaD approach, including theoretical advances related to predictive adaptive responses of the fetus to a broad range of environmental cues, empirical observations of effects of overnutrition and stress during pregnancy on outcomes in childhood and adulthood, and potential epigenetic mechanisms that may underlie these observations and theory. Next, we discuss the relevance of the DOHaD approach to reproductive medicine. Finally, we consider the next steps that might be taken to apply, evaluate, and extend the DOHaD approach.

Prenatal psychosocial predictors of infant birth weight and length of gestation were investigated in a prospective study of 120 Hispanic and 110 White pregnant women. Hypotheses specifying that personal resources (mastery, self-esteem, optimism), prenatal stress (state and pregnancy anxiety), and sociocultural factors (income, education, ethnicity) would have different effects on birth outcomes were tested using structural equation modeling. Results confirmed that women with stronger resources had higher birth weight babies ((3 = .21), whereas those reporting more stress had shorter gestations (|3 =-.20). Resources were also associated with lower stress ((3 =-.67), being married, being White, having higher income and education, and giving birth for the first time. There was no evidence that resources buffered the effects of stress. The importance of personal resources in pregnancy is highlighted along with implications for understanding the etiology of adverse birth outcomes.

Independent of biomedical risk, maternal prenatal stress factors are significantly associated with infant birth weight and with gestational age at birth.

As pregnancy advances, women become decreasingly sensitive to the effects of stress. This decrease in vulnerability may reflect increasing protection of the mother and fetus from adverse influences during pregnancy.