Mountain Mama Baby Cohort Study

Description

We have successfully completed enrollment of 417 participants!

The Mountain Mama Cohort study is a supplemental grant to the WVCTSI (PI Dr. Sally Hodder) which aims to demonstrate feasibility of cohort enrollment and measure preliminary associations of e-cigarette, cannabis exposure, and other lifestyle behaviors during pregnancy on maternal-fetal health outcomes in 417 women enrolled through West Virginia obstetric clinics.  This project is co-led by Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Amna Umer (Department of Pediatrics, West Virginia University School of Medicine).

Prenatal patients completing a nurse navigator visit to initiate pregnancy care at WVU Medicine are asked to provide verbal consent for participating in a cohort study that involves completing online surveys in the first and third trimesters about lifestyle behaviors (e.g., e-cigarette and other substance use, physical activity, diet, sleep) and mental health as well as consent to read-only access to their prenatal, labor, and delivery medical records for themselves and their baby.  Participants can receive up to $50 in gift cards for completing both sets of questionnaires.  At the end of the study, we hope to understand how many and whether a representative group of prenatal patients are willing to participate in this type of research, characterize behaviors in prenatal women in our region, and calculate preliminary associations between e-cigarettes, cannabis, and other lifestyle behaviors with pregnancy health and fetal health outcomes.

Selected Publication

Barone Gibbs B, Chmelik K, Marhsall E, Henggeler W, Olfert IM, Rowan S, Lilly C, Hodder SL, Umer A. Building the Mountain Mama and Baby Cohort: Study Design, Protocol, and Early Prenatal Clinic-based Recruitment Outcomes. American Journal of Epidemiology. 195 (5), 1429-1437 (2026).