Biochemical assessment of maternal stress during the third trimester of pregnancy: Analysis of biobanked hair samples from the MIREC study

Health Canada, through the MIREC Research Platform, is investigating the impacts of maternal health status during pregnancy, including chronic stress, on long-term childhood and maternal morbidity. Levels of steroid hormones may be used as proxy indicators for the extent of chronic stress exposure (over the post 3 months). Exploring their associations with endocrine, immune function, and overall health will address an important gap in scientific understanding and contribute to policy guidelines relevant to chronic stress.To address this knowledge gap, the purpose of this contract is to have the supplier measure and quantify a selection of five different steroid hormones in approximately 1460 hair biospecimens from the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Biobank. The supplier will then provide Health Canada with a detailed final report which includes a dataset for the steroid hormone laboratory results.