What to expect

Your medical and socio-demographic history

This entails a detailed case history as well as a description of your present situation. This is important as we know that the past often sheds light on the present and no detail is unimportant. Socio-demographic characteristics allow us to make homogeneous analysis of similar lifestyles; so that we compare apples with apples and not oranges so to speak.

Psychological well-being assessments 

Upon your enrolment in the study, online monthly questionnaires will need to be completed. These questionnaires, although often identical from month to month, are extremely useful as they let us know how you are doing on a regular basis; assessing joy, stress, anxiety, happiness. This ongoing monitoring also allows us to refer you to the appropriate resources if need be. As stated, some questionnaires are repetitive so as so monitor a potentially evolving situation (quality of sleep/mood).  Others will be new and adapted to the age of your baby.

Brain imagery of your baby thanks to MRI

MRI (magnetic resonance imagery) is the safest type of imagery for human beings, including babies. It is not like a scan and does not use radiation (X-Rays) nor medication. This imagery provides us with extraordinary images of the human brain; some examples can be seen in the slides presented on the home page. All these images are from our studies. They are analyzed in great detail and allow us to begin to understand the neural pathways already available to the newborn. These images are the hallmark of the MYRNA study.

An EEG (ElectroEnceloGraphy) is a procedure that allows us to mesure the electrical activity in the brain. It gives us additional and complementary information to the MRI. The procedure we use is at the forefront of innovative techniques as only two such machines are in use in Canada.  Further, we have the luxury to be able to use a head cap that was developed by our colleagues at Columbia University and avoids having to glue electrodes to the baby’s head.

Observing baby behaviour and interactions with his/her surroundings

Here we use standardized tests that allow us to assess how your baby interacts both with you and his/her environment in given specific situations.  These sessions are easily done through a ZOOM recording and are guided by a MYRNA research assistant.

The timeline calls for 2 Zoom sessions. Although they are similar, each follow-up corresponds to a specific life-stage in a baby’s development and are therefore of equal importance.

Routine samples for the MYRNA biobank

The biobank is a stand-alone project; one that is greatly complementary to the MYRNA study.  The biobank comprises of a variety of samples: urine and stool samples from mother during pregnancy, stool samples from both baby and mother, saliva and blood samples from mother, hair from both mother and child.

These samples will allow us to deepen our understanding and the analysis of how the child’s brain develops during early life.  One such area we are hoping to further explore is the role of intestinal flora (microbiome) on early life development.

At present, the scientific community recognizes the link between microbiome and brain development, but knows very little about how exactly this occurs.  Samples collected will complete the MYRNA long-term follow-ups and will give us a new perspective on brain development during early life.

The biobank will help us identify biological indicators of parents, those of the baby and the potential heightened sensitivity to stress and anxiety.  This is one of the main goals of the study, again, in the hope to provide better care for future mothers and their baby.

Thanking you by way of compensation

A commitment to participate is a commitment to give us your time. Your time is precious. And there is even less to go around once you welcome a newborn into your family. Further, this study being set in the long-term, your participation will require flexibility with regards to the schedule of follow-ups. We are well aware of this constraint and we are grateful that you are willing to accommodate it.

Hence, compensation is offered for participation in each follow-up. The amount differs for different tests. A simple questionnaire will garner anywhere from 20 to 40$, depending on its length. An MRI will garner 80$. An EEG plus a two-fold developmental assessment will be compensated with 100$.