The Women’s Mental Health Program is led under the direction of Dr. Stowe within the Dept. of Psychiatry at UW-Madison. Dr. Stowe conducts psychological research with pregnant women, new mothers, and their children.
The primary goal of the Program is to understand the transgenerational effects maternal mental health and trauma exposure can have on the behavioral, neural, and psychological development of her child. There is currently one study being conducted in the Program focusing on stress during pregnancy and postpartum psychopathology and how it relates to obstetric outcomes and is the only study currently recruiting participants. Future studies hope to examine the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with pregnant women and to investigate the impact of maternal trauma and PTSD on the neural circuitry of both mother and child.