Tough, Suzanne C.McDonald, Sheila W.Collisson, Beverly AnneGraham, SusanKehler, Heather L.Kingston, Dawn E.Benzies, Karen Marie2020-04-202020-04-202017-01Tough, S. C., McDonald, S. W., Collisson, B. A., Graham, S., Kehler, H. L., Kingston, D. E., & Benzies, K. M. (2017). Cohort Profile: The All Our Babies pregnancy cohort (AOB). "International Journal of Epidemiology", 2017, 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw363http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111817https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/43702Cohort ProfileWhy was the cohort set up? All Our Babies (AOB) is a community-based, longitudinal pregnancy cohort developed to investigate the relationships between the prenatal and early life periods and outcomes for infants, children and mothers. The design of AOB follows a life course perspective, whereby the influence of early events on long-term health and development of both mothers and children are investigated through examining factors across life stages. AOB spans pregnancy, birth and early postpartum through childhood, and therefore provides the unique opportunity to describe the relations between prenatal events and early life development and to examine key factors that influence child and mother well-being over time. AOB was originally designed to measure maternal and infant outcomes during the perinatal period, with a particular emphasis on barriers and facilitators to accessing health care services in Calgary, Alberta. Approximately 1 year after recruitment had started, an additional objective,to examine biological and environmental determinants of adverse birth outcomes, specifically spontaneous pre-term birth, was added. Recognition of the opportunity to continue to collect relevant life course information on the AOB families, collaborations with content experts and securing additional funding has enabled ongoing follow-up of AOB mother-child dyads. The overall objective was to further investigate risk and protective factors for optimal child development, and to understand the trajectory and impact of poor maternal mental health over time. Mothers have completed questionnaires from pregnancy to 3 years postpartum, and consented to providing the research team with access to their obstetric medical records. Data collection for a 5-year follow-up questionnaire is ongoing. A subgroup within the cohort participated in the ‘prediction of preterm birth’ component and provided blood samples during pregnancy and an umbilical cord blood sample. The continuation of follow-up to 8 years is under way.engUnless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.journal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw363