5. Conclusions
The present study suggests that prenatal depression may shape pregnant mothers’ emerging mental representation about their unborn children and parent–child relationships with negative bias, and this may endure beyond pregnancy into early childhood. It may be that mothers’ pre-birth child representations may serve as initial mental frameworks upon which later ones are built and supported. More work in the future may be needed to support positive changes in at-risk young mothers’ prenatal cognition related to their child and the parent–child relationship Please provided an updated acknowledgment section.