Originally known as the "Barker hypothesis," the field of science has expanded rapidly since David Barker, M.D., Ph.D., FRS, first noticed a correlation between birth weight and adult heart disease death in England. The science continues to reveal links between how the environment before birth and in the early years of life, including nutrition, exposure to toxic stress and environmental chemicals, impacts lifelong risk for additional chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

Barker, & Thornburg. (2013). Placental programming of chronic diseases, cancer and lifespan: A review. Placenta, 34(10), 841-845.

Gluckman, P., Hanson, M., & Buklijas, T. (2010). A conceptual framework for the developmental origins of health and disease. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 1(1), 6-18.

Gluckman, P., Hanson, M., Cooper, C., & Thornburg, K. (2008). Effect of In Utero and Early-Life Conditions on Adult Health and Disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 359(1), 61-73.

Wadhwa, P., Buss, C., Entringer, S., & Swanson, J. (2009). Developmental origins of health and disease: brief history of the approach and current focus on  epigenetic mechanisms. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, 27(5), 358-368.