M.A.D.R.E.S
Given the striking health and environmental burdens that the Hispanic and other minority and low-income populations face in California, the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center focuses on understanding causes of childhood obesity, excessive gestational weight gain, and postpartum weight retention among these populations.
The MADRES Center examines how environmental exposures to air pollution, metals, water contaminants, and toxic releases, coupled with exposures to psychosocial and built environment stressors, lead to excessive gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention. To carry out the Center projects, investigators are following a large, prospective pregnancy cohort of lower-income, predominantly Hispanic women in Los Angeles, California.