Bonding Before Birth (B3)

Bonding Before Birth
How well parents regulate their emotions holds significant implications for the couple, their parenting style and their children's well-being. The bond you form during pregnancy actively stimulates your baby's developing brain, nurturing neural connections, and setting the foundation for future learning and emotional well-being. Your ability to manage your own emotions also benefits your partnership as a spouse and the way you bring up your children. This ability of expectant parents to bond with one another during pregnancy deepens their relationship and prepares them for a wonderful journey as parents.

What does A*STAR IHDP hope to do?
Improving parents’ mental health during pregnancy leads to better parenting once the child is born, which in turn yields long-term benefits for the child’s future cognitive and socio-emotional development. Our Bonding Before Birth (B³) study seeks to explore how remote self-regulation training and wearable metrics impact a variety of outcomes for expectant couples. By taking part in this study, you can embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery,  enhancing parental well-being, parenting efficacy and positive socio-emotional outcomes, while shaping the future of intervention research for your family and those of other families in similar situations.

How can you help?
You can embark on this extraordinary journey of parental bonding with us if you fit the following criteria:

• Expecting your first child and at <15 weeks of pregnancy
• Plan to deliver in Singapore
• Singleton pregnancy
• Aged 21+
• Proficient and able to respond to questionnaires in English
• Plan for you and your child to live in Singapore for the next 2 years
• Access to a smartphone

What should you expect?
If you and your partner sign up for the B³ study, you will be loaned a Fitbit device to wear throughout your pregnancy and up to six months after giving birth at no cost. The Fitbit will collect data, including heart rate variability, physical activity, and your sleep quality, which are important for our research.

You will also be invited to our study centre to complete some lab-based cognitive and behavioural tasks. Both parents will take part in these assessments twice – once during pregnancy and once when the child turns 6 months old. During the study visit, we will also collect biological samples – specifically buccal and saliva samples – during the study visit for both you and your child. Blood samples may also be drawn from both parents once during pregnancy to assess biomarkers related to mental and physical health.

Your time and travel expenses to our study centre will be covered. There are no additional costs for participating in this project.

To find out more, email us at b3_study@a-star.edu.sg or simply click here to fill in the form.