ABSTRACT
Because the factors that contribute to the development of a healthy newborn are so complex, understanding them requires insights from many disciplines. Crucial to this understanding is the role parents play. Through their behavior, psychology, and biology, parents influence the development of their children well before birth (Glover and Capron, 2017). In this chapter we review insights from evolutionary ecology that we believe help marshal what is known about prenatal influences on pregnancy, fetal development, and child outcomes into a more coherent whole. We focus in particular on the concept of maternal effects.
