Prenatal trajectories of birthing parents’ brain responses to infant cues and their association with postpartum parenting behaviors

While prior research has linked brain responses in late pregnancy to caregiving quality, no study has examined how neural responses to infant cues change across gestation and relate to postpartum parenting. Using fNIRS, we measured prefrontal responses to infant cues each trimester in 76 birthing parents (M = 29.49 years; 62.2% White, 14.9% Black, 16.2% other). Greater increases in right DLPFC and VMPFC responsivity to infant cries predicted more sensitive parenting, while increases in DLPFC responses to happy faces predicted greater parental structuring. Findings suggest a gradual, lateralized tuning of prefrontal systems to emotionally salient infant cues beginning early in gestation. Results highlight pregnancy as a sensitive window to support emerging caregiving capacities and inform early interventions for expectant parents.Pregnancy is a period of major biological and psychological change, yet little is known about how the brain prepares parents for caring for a newborn. In this study, we followed birthing parents from early to late pregnancy and measured how their brains responded to infant cries and faces. We also observed how they interacted with their babies after birth. We found that parents who later showed more sensitive and well-structured caregiving displayed distinct patterns of brain change across pregnancy, especially when hearing infant cries. These results suggest that the brain begins preparing for parenting before birth, and that individual differences in this process may help shape early caregiving behaviors.