Fetal Origins Hypothesis
How do we become who we are? How much do we control? When do we start becoming who we are? These fundamental questions about human life have motivated research in the natural and social sciences for generations. In the past couple of decades in particular, economics and other fields have been ramping up research to those questions to discover the origins of how we become who we are (Paul, 2010; Barker, 1990). This paper is similarly motivated to help answer those questions. It looks at the relationship between prenatal healthcare and cognitive ability of the child. This topic stems from recent studies on investments in female health (Bloom et al., 2015) and literature surrounding the “fetal origins hypothesis,” as popularized by David J Barker
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It was popularized in the late 1990s by David J. Barker (Almond & Currie, 2011; Heckman, 2007) as he looked at the effect of the fetal environment on adult heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure. It is a departure from a line of thinking popular until the mid-20th century—that the womb acts as an impenetrable barrier that keeps the fetus safe. It was thought that the womb filtered nutrition through the placenta so that the fetus received only what it needed (Paul, …show more content…
Doyle, et al. (2009) takes the fetal origins hypothesis an important step further by developing the “antenatal investment hypothesis,” which suggests that investment returns to a child are higher when investments are made early in pregnancy and that prenatal investments yield higher returns than postnatal investments. Further, those early human capital investments will amplify investment returns at all subsequent periods of life.
Prenatal care and cognitive development in the developed world Much of the above literature on the link between prenatal health investments and a child’s cognitive development are based off the developed world. Hoynes, et al. (2009) examines the effect of a federal food and nutrition program in the United States on birth outcomes,
Almond’s (2006) finding support investments in maternal health. It uses the Influenza Pandemic during 1918 as its identification strategy to determine the impact of maternal health during the antenatal period. Almond (2006) finds that those whose mothers were infected with influenza were 15% less likely to graduate high school
It was popularized in the late 1990s by David J. Barker (Almond & Currie, 2011; Heckman, 2007) as he looked at the effect of the fetal environment on adult heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure. It is a departure from a line of thinking popular until the mid-20th century—that the womb acts as an impenetrable barrier that keeps the fetus safe. It was thought that the womb filtered nutrition through the placenta so that the fetus received only what it needed (Paul, …show more content…
Doyle, et al. (2009) takes the fetal origins hypothesis an important step further by developing the “antenatal investment hypothesis,” which suggests that investment returns to a child are higher when investments are made early in pregnancy and that prenatal investments yield higher returns than postnatal investments. Further, those early human capital investments will amplify investment returns at all subsequent periods of life.
Prenatal care and cognitive development in the developed world Much of the above literature on the link between prenatal health investments and a child’s cognitive development are based off the developed world. Hoynes, et al. (2009) examines the effect of a federal food and nutrition program in the United States on birth outcomes,
Almond’s (2006) finding support investments in maternal health. It uses the Influenza Pandemic during 1918 as its identification strategy to determine the impact of maternal health during the antenatal period. Almond (2006) finds that those whose mothers were infected with influenza were 15% less likely to graduate high school