The words of health care providers during prenatal care visits can influence how parents see their children

Pregnancy is often a unique experience, marked by anticipation and mental representations of what will happen after a baby’s birth. Understanding how people’s experiences while pregnant influence their parenting skills and how they perceive their children after birth could be highly valuable, as it could help to devise new protocols aimed at better supporting prospective parents.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Notre Dame recently carried out a study exploring the possibility that the words of medical staff during ultrasounds and prenatal care visits could influence parents’ pre-birth perceptions of their babies, as well as how they relate with them after birth.

Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that health care providers can unintentionally contribute to the formation of mental constructs that might in turn shape the relationship between parents and their children.

“My research team has interviewed hundreds of expecting parents, and as part of the training process, I would listen to those interviews,” Kathryn L. Humphreys, associate professor at Vanderbilt University and senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “I noticed that when asked about expectations about their baby, many pregnant individuals would repeat comments health care providers made during ultrasounds.

“These seemingly casual remarks appeared to stick with parents, and I wondered whether there may be a consequence for these comments in shaping beliefs and behaviors longer term.”

The primary objective of the recent study by Humphreys and her colleagues was to understand whether prenatal care visits, particularly the language that health care providers use during these visits, can influence how parents perceive their children before they are even born. In addition, the team hoped to determine whether these perceptions can have lasting effects on the development of children and on their relationship with their parents.

“We wanted to understand both the prospective link between prenatal descriptions and later child outcomes, and whether we could experimentally demonstrate that provider language directly influences these perceptions,” explained Humphreys. “To achieve this, we conducted two complementary studies.”

As part of their first experiment, Humphreys and her colleagues interviewed 320 pregnant women, asking them to describe their baby’s personality using five descriptive words. The researchers noted these descriptions down, mentioning whether they were derived from prenatal care visits or other sources.

“We then followed up with 173 participants when their children were 18 months old to assess behavioral and emotional development,” said Humphreys. “What we discovered was striking—descriptions attributed to prenatal care visits were nearly three times more likely to be negative than those from any other source.

“More concerning, children described more negatively during pregnancy had higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties in toddlerhood, regardless of whether any of the descriptions came from prenatal care visits or not.”

Overall, the findings of this first experiment suggested that parents’ negative perceptions of their children’s personality during pregnancy were associated with more behavioral and emotional difficulties in their toddlers. To determine whether the words of health care providers caused parents to develop specific views of their children, Humphreys and her colleagues conducted a second study.

“In our second experiment, 161 participants watched videos of an ultrasound,” explained Humphreys. “Each participant was randomly assigned to hear one of three different explanations for why a repeat scan was needed: one blaming the baby, one citing technical issues, or one framing it as an opportunity to strengthen the parent–child relationship.

“We then asked participants to describe the baby’s personality. Those who heard the baby blamed were 23 times more likely to use negative descriptors than those in the relationship-focused condition.”

The results of the two experiments carried out by this research team suggest that the words of health care providers during pregnancy can in fact have lasting effects on how parents view their children’s personality, while also potentially impacting the children’s development. This insight could help to improve prenatal care protocols, with the aim of better supporting individuals on their journey towards parenthood.

“Practically speaking, this research suggests we need to rethink how prenatal care providers communicate with expecting parents,” said Humphreys. “Rather than casually attributing personality traits to fetuses during ultrasounds—particularly negative ones like ‘stubborn’ or ‘uncooperative’—providers could focus on explaining technical aspects of the procedure or, likely better, emphasize opportunities for connection.”

The researchers hope that their work will contribute to the development of new communication guidelines for prenatal care providers, which could play a role in fostering healthy parent-child relationships from the earliest stages of life.

Meanwhile, Humphreys and her colleagues plan to continue exploring the link between the work of prenatal care providers and post-natal outcomes, with the hope of identifying other opportunities for the improvement of maternity and prospective parenting health care services.

“First, we’re collecting information about descriptions of the child and the influence of prenatal care experiences on those descriptions across multiple cohorts, including with expecting mothers and fathers, in order to replicate and extend our findings,” added Humphreys.

“Second, we’re working to reach sonographers and other health care providers who work with individuals during pregnancy to learn how to facilitate communication that supports the parent–child relationship.

“Finally, we’re planning longer-term follow-up studies to understand how these early perceptions influence parent–child interactions and child development across early childhood and beyond.”

© 2025 Science X Network

Pregnancy is often a unique experience, marked by anticipation and mental representations of what will happen after a baby’s birth. Understanding how people’s experiences while pregnant influence their parenting skills and how they perceive their children after birth could be highly valuable, as it could help to devise new protocols aimed at better supporting prospective parents.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Notre Dame recently carried out a study exploring the possibility that the words of medical staff during ultrasounds and prenatal care visits could influence parents’ pre-birth perceptions of their babies, as well as how they relate with them after birth.

Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that health care providers can unintentionally contribute to the formation of mental constructs that might in turn shape the relationship between parents and their children.

“My research team has interviewed hundreds of expecting parents, and as part of the training process, I would listen to those interviews,” Kathryn L. Humphreys, associate professor at Vanderbilt University and senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “I noticed that when asked about expectations about their baby, many pregnant individuals would repeat comments health care providers made during ultrasounds.

“These seemingly casual remarks appeared to stick with parents, and I wondered whether there may be a consequence for these comments in shaping beliefs and behaviors longer term.”

The primary objective of the recent study by Humphreys and her colleagues was to understand whether prenatal care visits, particularly the language that health care providers use during these visits, can influence how parents perceive their children before they are even born. In addition, the team hoped to determine whether these perceptions can have lasting effects on the development of children and on their relationship with their parents.

“We wanted to understand both the prospective link between prenatal descriptions and later child outcomes, and whether we could experimentally demonstrate that provider language directly influences these perceptions,” explained Humphreys. “To achieve this, we conducted two complementary studies.”

As part of their first experiment, Humphreys and her colleagues interviewed 320 pregnant women, asking them to describe their baby’s personality using five descriptive words. The researchers noted these descriptions down, mentioning whether they were derived from prenatal care visits or other sources.

“We then followed up with 173 participants when their children were 18 months old to assess behavioral and emotional development,” said Humphreys. “What we discovered was striking—descriptions attributed to prenatal care visits were nearly three times more likely to be negative than those from any other source.

“More concerning, children described more negatively during pregnancy had higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties in toddlerhood, regardless of whether any of the descriptions came from prenatal care visits or not.”

Overall, the findings of this first experiment suggested that parents’ negative perceptions of their children’s personality during pregnancy were associated with more behavioral and emotional difficulties in their toddlers. To determine whether the words of health care providers caused parents to develop specific views of their children, Humphreys and her colleagues conducted a second study.

“In our second experiment, 161 participants watched videos of an ultrasound,” explained Humphreys. “Each participant was randomly assigned to hear one of three different explanations for why a repeat scan was needed: one blaming the baby, one citing technical issues, or one framing it as an opportunity to strengthen the parent–child relationship.

“We then asked participants to describe the baby’s personality. Those who heard the baby blamed were 23 times more likely to use negative descriptors than those in the relationship-focused condition.”

The results of the two experiments carried out by this research team suggest that the words of health care providers during pregnancy can in fact have lasting effects on how parents view their children’s personality, while also potentially impacting the children’s development. This insight could help to improve prenatal care protocols, with the aim of better supporting individuals on their journey towards parenthood.

“Practically speaking, this research suggests we need to rethink how prenatal care providers communicate with expecting parents,” said Humphreys. “Rather than casually attributing personality traits to fetuses during ultrasounds—particularly negative ones like ‘stubborn’ or ‘uncooperative’—providers could focus on explaining technical aspects of the procedure or, likely better, emphasize opportunities for connection.”

The researchers hope that their work will contribute to the development of new communication guidelines for prenatal care providers, which could play a role in fostering healthy parent-child relationships from the earliest stages of life.

Meanwhile, Humphreys and her colleagues plan to continue exploring the link between the work of prenatal care providers and post-natal outcomes, with the hope of identifying other opportunities for the improvement of maternity and prospective parenting health care services.

“First, we’re collecting information about descriptions of the child and the influence of prenatal care experiences on those descriptions across multiple cohorts, including with expecting mothers and fathers, in order to replicate and extend our findings,” added Humphreys.

“Second, we’re working to reach sonographers and other health care providers who work with individuals during pregnancy to learn how to facilitate communication that supports the parent–child relationship.

“Finally, we’re planning longer-term follow-up studies to understand how these early perceptions influence parent–child interactions and child development across early childhood and beyond.”

© 2025 Science X Network