Fetal Programming and Public Policy

Fetal programming is a core concept within the broader developmental origins of health and disease framework, which acknowledges the contribution of the prenatal and early postnatal environment to health across the life span. Fetal programming suggests that the fetus adapts to environmental exposures and that altered biological systems can have lasting effects on child and adult health. The theory derived from the widely replicated finding that infants who are smaller at birth are more likely to die of cardiovascular disease in later life.¹ Although initially concerned with cardiometabolic phenotypes, the model has been extended to other systems, including neural development and psychiatric phenotypes.