As far as we are aware, investigation of maternal and pregnancy outcomes while accounting for possible confounding Enzalutamide supplier factors such as socioeconomic class and maternal education has not previously been published. The early years have been shown to be crucial for positive child development. We chose to focus on maternal indicators and behaviours that are likely to have an impact on child physical and mental well-being: smoking during pregnancy, low birth weight, breastfeeding initiation and symptoms of maternal depression. Smoking during

pregnancy can lead to poor outcomes for mothers as well as for babies.16 Low birth weight is associated with worse childhood, and worse adult health and social outcomes, and is thought to be influenced by biological as well as social factors.17–19 The prevention of low birth weight through health and social

interventions in order to reduce health inequalities at an intergenerational level is an important goal of public health. Maternal depression is associated with impaired mother–infant attachment, and children of depressed mothers are at a greater risk of deficits in social and cognitive function, along with being at a greater risk of psychopathology in later life.20–22 Despite breastfeeding having short-term and long-term health benefits for mother and baby,23 the UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide, especially in young, white women from disadvantaged social groups.24 We

compared the sociodemographic and health profiles of mothers who had been in care as a child with either foster parents or in a children’s home to mothers who had not. We also looked at the relationship between the mothers who had been placed with foster parents or in a children’s home with the likelihood of the following selected outcomes: smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, the presence of symptoms of maternal depression and the uptake of breastfeeding. Methods Millennium Cohort Study The Millennium Cohort Study is a nationally representative cohort study of 18 818 infants from 18 553 families born in the UK.25 A random two-stage sample of all AV-951 infants born in the UK between 2000 and 2002, and who were alive and residents in the UK at 9 months was drawn from the Department of Social Security Child Benefit Registers. Children born in England and Wales were recruited between September 2000 and August 2001, and children born in Scotland and Northern Ireland were recruited between November 2000 and January 2002. Child Benefit Registers cover virtually all children, but excludes those whose residence status is either uncertain or temporary. Children who had died within the first 9–10 months of life were excluded. These children are estimated to be less than 1% of all births.