Lydia Munns
Psychology PhD student

Research

Overview

The long-term effects of body satisfaction during pregnancy on mother-infant outcomes

Projects

Pregnancy is a time of great change for women and their bodies. Many of the bodily changes are conflicting with the social ideals of the appearance of the female body, leaving women pressured to maintain a socially desirable pregnant body shape. These pressures can impact on how satisfied women are with their changing pregnant bodies which is supported by recent research, suggesting that around ¾ of women have negative or mixed feelings about their body during pregnancy.

The proposed project aims to fill an important gap in the research by looking at the long-term effects of body satisfaction and interoceptive changes during pregnancy on mother-infant outcomes. It is hoped that this would result in a better understanding of how to support women and their babies in the long term and could inform early interventions during pregnancy. It could also contribute to a better awareness for those supporting pregnant women around how these bodily changes influence a mother’s bond with their new-born babies, and how they feel in themselves.

Grants

• Departmental Studentship

Collaborators

• Dr Catherine Preston

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Graduate Teaching Assistant

Publications

Selected publications

• Demnitz-King, H., Saba, L., Lau, Y., Munns, L., Zabihi, S., Schlosser, M., ... & Marchant, N. L. (2023). Association between anxiety symptoms and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in cognitively healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 111159.
• Munns, L., Kaluzna, A., Liebmann, M., Koren, T. and Ke, C., 2021. Victimisation and loneliness: who is more likely to become lonely?. [online] National Elf Service. Available at: https://www.nationalelfservice.net/populations-and-settings/loneliness/victimisation-loneliness/.
• Munns, L., Williams, C., Carthigesan, S., Wilson, S. (2021) Is a sleep clinic effective at reducing sleep disturbance in children with complex neurodevelopmental difficulties and does gender influence this? Clinical Psychology Forum (338).