#354 - #360:🚶‍➡️Life Course Series Journal Club

Hello friends 👋

This special podcast series explores the recently published articles in Children on the implications of preterm birth across the life course. Through conversations with authors, editors, and parents, we dive into how prematurity shapes health and well-being far beyond the NICU. Episodes highlight themes of equity, communication, family mental health, resilience, and the importance of strength-based care. By blending scientific insight with lived experience, the series challenges clinicians to look beyond survival and consider how early care, environments, and relationships shape outcomes throughout childhood and into adulthood.

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Episode 1

#354 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - Do We Really Understand the Life Course after Preterm Birth?

This episode sets the stage for a collection of conversations inspired by a recently published special issue in Children: Implications of Preterm Birth for Health and Well-Being Over the Life Course. Host Dr. Daphna Barbeau is joined by the editors, Dr. Susan Hintz and Dr. Jonathan Litt of Stanford University, to discuss why the concept of “life course” is so critical for understanding the long-term impact of preterm birth.

Dr. Hintz and Dr. Litt explain how survival is only the beginning of the story. Preterm birth often shapes health trajectories well into childhood and adulthood, influenced not only by medical factors but also by family, environment, and community supports. They highlight how the issue’s twelve articles bring together diverse perspectives—from developmental science to family voices—that reveal both the challenges and opportunities faced by preterm infants and their families.

For busy clinicians, this conversation reframes day-to-day NICU care within a broader, lifelong context. It shows how even routine interactions in the NICU can influence resilience, parental well-being, and future outcomes. More than an introduction, this episode is an invitation to think differently about what it means to care for premature infants—not just today, but across their entire life course.

Transcript Life Course Episode 1

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Episode 2

#355 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - How Do Inequities Shape the Life Course of Preterm Infants?

In this episode, we chat with Dr. Tim Nelin and Dr. Yarden Fraiman, two authors from the recently published special issue of Children on the life course implications of preterm birth. Together, they explore how inequities—both environmental and social—can shape the long-term health trajectories of preterm infants.

Dr. Nelin introduces the idea of “micro” and “macro” environments, showing how factors such as air pollution, green space, violence, and neighborhood social vulnerability not only contribute to preterm birth risk but also affect infants once they leave the NICU. His research underscores how the same exposures tied to prematurity continue to drive health disparities long after hospital discharge.

Dr. Fraiman focuses on ADHD as a case study of inequity across the life course. He describes the “ADHD care cascade,” illustrating how systemic bias and structural racism impact recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of ADHD among children born preterm. The conversation highlights how inequities layer over time, widening gaps in health and educational outcomes.

While the challenges are significant, the discussion also points to solutions—ranging from policy interventions and community partnerships to family-centered approaches. This episode emphasizes the urgent need to think upstream, addressing the drivers of inequity to create meaningful change for preterm infants and their families.

Transcript Life Course Episode 2

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Episode 3

#356 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - Are We Saying the Right Words in the NICU?

In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau speaks with Dr. Paige Terrien Church and Dr. Ashwini Lakshmanan about one of the most delicate yet essential aspects of neonatal care: communication. Drawing on their recent articles, the discussion highlights how the words we choose in the NICU profoundly shape families’ experiences, hopes, and perceptions of their child’s future.

Dr. Church addresses the discomfort many clinicians feel when discussing disability, emphasizing how entrenched medical training and ableism can unintentionally bias conversations. She introduces the concepts of microethics—the subtle, everyday interactions between families and providers—and how language choices like “risk” versus “possibility” can dramatically shift tone and meaning. The group explores how framing outcomes around abilities and opportunities, rather than limitations, helps families make sense of uncertainty with dignity and clarity.

Dr. Lakshmanan’s qualitative work brings in the voices of parents, revealing how uncertainty permeates the NICU journey and affects bonding, mental health, and confidence. Together, the guests highlight strategies for building trust, addressing parental guilt, and creating systems of support during the transition from hospital to home.

This episode challenges clinicians to pause, examine their own biases, and recognize language as a tool as powerful as any intervention delivered in the NICU.

Transcript Life Course Episode 3

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Episode 4

#357 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - What Can Parents Teach Us About Life in and After the NICU?

In this moving episode, Dr. Ben Courchia and Dr. Daphna Barbeau are joined by LaToshia Rouse, a certified doula and patient engagement consultant, and Dr. Jessica DiBari from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Together, they share insights from their two Parent Perspective articles in the special issue of Children, which focus on the NICU experience and the critical transition to home.

LaToshia and Jessica describe the NICU as a culture all its own—one that parents enter suddenly, without preparation, and often with a sense of trauma and grief. They discuss the psychological distress families carry, the challenges of bonding with fragile infants, and the ways communication can either deepen wounds or help parents feel empowered. Practical steps like hand hugs, skin-to-skin care, and peer support emerge as powerful tools for connection.

The conversation then shifts to life after discharge, which both guests describe as one of the most daunting transitions. From feeding challenges and equipment management to the constant worry about emergencies, families must adapt quickly while navigating limited community support. LaToshia and Jessica emphasize the need for honest preparation, early planning, and continued guidance that helps parents shed the “fragile baby” mindset and embrace their child’s resilience.

This episode highlights how listening to families transforms not only the NICU experience but also the long journey that follows.

Transcript Life Course Episode 4

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Episode 5

#358 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - How Does Mental Health Shape the Life Course of Preterm Infants?

In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau sits down with Dr. Richard Shaw (Stanford University) and Dr. Soudabeh Givrad (Weill Cornell Medical College), child psychiatry experts and co-authors of Neurodevelopmental, Mental Health, and Parenting Issues in Preterm Infants. Their conversation shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked intersection of prematurity, neurodevelopment, and family mental health.

Dr. Givrad explains how the rapid brain growth that normally occurs late in pregnancy makes preterm infants especially vulnerable to stress, pain, separation, and environmental influences in the NICU. She and Dr. Shaw outline the higher risks for challenges in cognition, language, and motor development, while emphasizing opportunities for early interventions that can positively shape outcomes.

The discussion then turns to “infant mental health” and the ways relationships in the early years set the stage for emotional regulation, social development, and resilience. Both guests highlight how parental trauma, PTSD, depression, and anxiety affect not only caregivers’ well-being but also how they interact with and raise their children. Concepts such as vulnerable child syndrome, overprotection, and parental guilt are explored in depth.

Ultimately, this episode underscores why supporting parental mental health is as essential as any medical treatment—because how parents experience and process the NICU journey profoundly shapes the lifelong health and development of their children.

Transcript Life Course Episode 5

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Episode 6

#359 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - Can a Strength-Based Approach Transform NICU Follow-Up?

In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau welcomes Dr. Shirley Russ, Senior Project Scientist for the Life Course Translational Research Network, to discuss how life course health development can reframe neonatal care and follow-up after prematurity. Drawing from her extensive work leading the Prematurity Node within the network, Dr. Russ highlights why translating research into practice at scale is essential for improving lifelong outcomes.

The conversation emphasizes moving beyond a problem-focused, deficit-based model of NICU follow-up toward a strength-based approach that recognizes resilience, family capacity, and the broader developmental ecosystem surrounding each child. Dr. Russ outlines how interventions should not only detect problems but proactively optimize development—by supporting parents’ mental health, fostering nurturing environments, and integrating community resources into care.

She also shares insights into co-designing research and interventions with families, ensuring that their lived experiences guide both priorities and solutions. Practical examples include addressing parental trauma, redesigning follow-up clinics, and viewing prematurity in the context of interconnected systems—from family and community supports to schools and policies.

This forward-looking episode challenges clinicians to rethink follow-up care as more than monitoring milestones. Instead, it presents an opportunity to partner with families and communities to build healthier, more resilient futures for children born preterm.

Transcript Life Course Episode 6

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Episode 7

#360 -🚶‍➡️[Life Course Series] - What Do the Seven Principles of Life Course Health Teach Us About Preterm Care?

In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau is joined by Dr. Neal Halfon (UCLA) and Dr. Shirley Russ (Cedars-Sinai/UCLA), two leading voices in life course health development, to explore how this framework reshapes our understanding of preterm infant care and follow-up. Together, they discuss their article, Ensuring Optimal Outcomes for Preterm Infants After NICU Discharge: A Life Course Health Development Approach to High-Risk Infant Follow-Up.

Dr. Halfon introduces the seven principles of life course health development—development, unfolding, complexity, timing, plasticity, thriving, and harmony—and explains how each reveals the dynamic, multilayered nature of health trajectories. Far from abstract, these principles highlight how small adjustments in the NICU can shape long-term outcomes, with early interventions compounding over time.

Dr. Russ reflects on how harmony across biology, family, and society is essential, while also emphasizing the risks posed by mismatches between development and environment. The discussion expands to consider how interventions can be more developmentally tailored, family-centered, strength-based, and designed for long-term optimization rather than short-term problem detection.

This episode encourages neonatal professionals to see beyond the walls of the NICU, adopting a design mindset that views care as a team process and recognizes the far-reaching impact of early decisions on a child’s ability not just to survive, but to thrive.

Transcript Life Course Episode 7

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The articles covered on today’s episode of the podcast can be found here 👇

Family Reflections on a Lifecourse Journey after Neonatal Intensive Care: Neurodiversity, Enablement and Hope by Michael E. Msall Children 2024, 11(2), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/children11020165 - 26 Jan 2024

Uncertainty and the NICU Experience: A Qualitative Evaluation of Family and Provider Perspectives by Katharine Griffin Gorsky,Saloni Butala,Madison House,Chelsea Moon,Sam Calvetti,Tenzin Khando,Michele Kipke andAshwini Lakshmanan Children 2023, 10(11), 1745; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10111745 - 27 Oct 2023

Organizational Health Literacy as a Tool for Health Equity: Application in a High-Risk Infant Follow-Up Program by Lindsay E. Rosenfeld,Kelly McCullagh,Carolyn J. King,Micaela Torres andJonathan S. Litt Children 2023, 10(10), 1658; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10101658 - 6 Oct 2023

The Role of Distance from Home to Hospital on Parental Experience in the NICU: A Qualitative Study by Stephanie L. Bourque,Venice N. Williams,Jessica Scott andSunah S. Hwang Children 2023, 10(9), 1576; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10091576 - 20 Sep 2023

Neurodevelopmental, Mental Health, and Parenting Issues in Preterm Infants by Richard J. Shaw,Soudabeh Givrad,Celeste Poe,Elizabeth C. Loi,Margaret K. Hoge andMelissa Scala Children 2023, 10(9), 1565; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10091565 - 18 Sep 2023

Ensuring Optimal Outcomes for Preterm Infants after NICU Discharge: A Life Course Health Development Approach to High-Risk Infant Follow-Up by Jonathan S. Litt,Neal Halfon,Michael E. Msall,Shirley Ann Russ andSusan R. Hintz Children 2024, 11(2), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/children11020146 - 24 Jan 2024

Accelerated Aging and the Life Course of Individuals Born Preterm by Audrey Bousquet,Keia Sanderson,T. Michael O’Shea andRebecca C. Fry Children 2023, 10(10), 1683; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10101683 - 13 Oct 2023

A Narrative Review of the Association between Prematurity and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Accompanying Inequities across the Life-Course by Yarden S. Fraiman,Genevieve Guyol,Dolores Acevedo-Garcia,Andrew F. Beck,Heather Burris,Tumaini R. Coker andHenning Tiemeier Children 2023, 10(10), 1637; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10101637 - 30 Sep 2023

NICU Language, Everyday Ethics, and Giving Better News: Optimizing Discussions about Disability with Families by Paige Terrien Church,Maya Dahan,Amy Rule,Annie Janvier,Jane E. Stewart,John S. Maypole,Darcy Fehlings,Jonathan S. Litt andRudaina Banihani Children 2024, 11(2), 242; https://doi.org/10.3390/children11020242 - 15 Feb 2024

Parent Perspectives: Part 2—Considerations for the Transition Home Post-NICU Discharge

by Jessica N. DiBari andLaToshia Rouse Children 2023, 10(12), 1835; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10121835 - 22 Nov 2023

Parent Perspectives: Part 1—Considerations for Changing the NICU Culture by Jessica N. DiBari andLaToshia Rouse Children 2023, 10(11), 1735; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10111735 - 26 Oct 2023

Place-Based Strategies Addressing Neighborhood Environments to Improve Perinatal and Preterm Infant Outcomes by Timothy D. Nelin,Kristan A. Scott,Allan C. Just andHeather H. Burris Children 2023, 10(10), 1646; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10101646 - 2 Oct 2023