Chronic stress during pregnancy harms both the mother and developing child, and there is an urgent unmet need to understand this process in order to develop protective treatments. Here, we report that chronic gestational stress (CGS) causes aberrant maternal care behavior in the form of increased licking and grooming, decreased nursing, and increased time spent nest building. Treatment of CGS-exposed dams with the NAD⁺-stabilizing agent P7C3-A20 during pregnancy and postpartum, however, preserved normal maternal care behavior. CGS also caused abnormally low weight gain during gestation and postpartum, which was partially ameliorated by maternal treatment with P7C3-A20. Dams also displayed hyperactive locomotion after CGS, which was not affected by P7C3-A20. Although dams did not display a classic depressive-like phenotype after CGS, some changes in anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors were observed. Our results highlight the need for further characterization of the effects of chronic gestational stress on maternal care behavior and provide clues to possible protective mechanisms.

怀孕期间的慢性压力会伤害母亲和发育中的孩子，迫切需要了解这一过程以开发保护性治疗。在这里，我们报告慢性妊娠应激 (CGS) 导致异常的产妇护理行为，表现为舔舐和梳理次数增加、护理减少以及筑巢时间增加。^{用 NAD +}处理 CGS 暴露的水坝-然而，怀孕期间和产后稳定剂 P7C3-A20 保留了正常的产妇护理行为。CGS 还在妊娠期和产后引起异常低的体重增加，这通过使用 P7C3-A20 的母体治疗得到部分改善。在不受 P7C3-A20 影响的 CGS 之后，水坝也表现出过度活跃的运动。尽管水坝在 CGS 后没有表现出典型的抑郁样表型，但观察到焦虑和抑郁样行为的一些变化。我们的结果强调需要进一步描述慢性妊娠压力对产妇护理行为的影响，并为可能的保护机制提供线索。