Sharjah24: Dr. Leila Cheikh Ismail, Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics of the University of Sharjah’s College of Health Sciences, was part of the research team consisting of researchers from the University of Oxford and several universities from around the world. They conducted a pioneering scientific study in the field of fetal growth and postpartum development.

The study examined more than 3,500 children in six countries around the world including Brazil, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. It aimed to monitor the growth of the fetus throughout the pregnancy of more than 3500 mothers using serial ultrasound, and the growth and development of these children until the age of two years. The study was able to identify the patterns of head growth associated with different growth outcomes, as well as behavioral and visual development at the age of two years. This provides strong evidence that childhood development is influenced by events affecting the mother before and/or during pregnancy.

In the study, published in Nature Medicine on March 18, 2021, the researchers were able for the first time to determine a critical period during pregnancy from 20 to 25 weeks, which is the starting point for the five growth patterns of the fetal head with different results in infants.

This study is unique because each pregnancy was accurately dated by ultrasound in less than 14 weeks of pregnancy and all fetuses were examined with the same type of ultrasound equipment every 5 weeks throughout the pregnancy. All ultrasound specialists have also been trained to measure fetal growth in a standardized manner.

Dr. Leila Cheikh Ismail, one of the research team members, indicated that this study showed distinct patterns of fetal head growth during pregnancy and their relevance to infant development outcomes. The greatest clinical concern also relates to stunted fetal head development, starting at about 20 to 25 weeks of pregnancy, which has the strongest negative impact on cognitive, fine motor, language, and visual development at two years of age.

The results of that study also strongly suggest that the prenatal and pregnancy environments determine the growth and development of infants worldwide. Hence, specialists and decision-makers must pay attention to these findings to ensure that mothers enter pregnancy as healthy as possible and receive quality, evidence-based care from the first trimester of pregnancy onwards.

It is worth noting that Nature Medicine is one of the most important internationally reviewed medical journals specialised in publishing scientific research and ranks high in the international classification of scientific journals.