2014 Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Columbia University, College of Surgeons & Physicians, 2013 Physicians & Surgeons Alumni Lifetime Learning Award
Scientific career
Fields
Clinical psychiatry, Neonatal and Infant Development, Child Development
Martha G. Welch is an American physician and researcher specializing in the fields of infant and child development. Welch currently serves as a
Professor of Psychiatry in Pediatrics and in Pathology & Cell Biology at
Columbia University Irving Medical Center.[1][2] Welch's writing and research focuses on the posited benefits of prolonged close physical contact and eye contact between mothers and children.[3]
Education and career
Martha Grace Welch was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in Eggertsville, New York. Her paternal family is descended from the founders of the
Welch's Grape Juice Company.[4]
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 from
New York University, Welch attended
Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she earned her medical degree in 1971. Following medical school, Welch completed a residency in General Psychiatry (1972–1974) and a Fellowship in Child Psychiatry (1974–1977) at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[5] She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology on November 30, 1977.[6]
From 1975 to 1997, Welch operated a private practice, specializing in the treatment of emotional, behavioral and developmental disorders, including
autism, maintaining offices in New York City and Greenwich, CT. In 1997, she joined the faculty at Columbia University Medical Center's College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Department of Psychiatry.[7]
In 2008 Welch was jointly appointed in Columbia University's Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. In 2010 Welch was jointly appointed in Columbia University's Department of Pediatrics, where she is conducting research on Family Nurture Intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In 2013, Welch became co-director of the Nurture Science Program in the Department of Pediatrics.
Welch published the book "Holding Time” in 1988.[8][9] The book promoted the use of prolonged parent-child embrace, a physical technique to increase communication and emotional connection between parent and child.[8][10][11] Welch claimed the technique could lower the risk of autism in children, for which she was later criticized.[8][12][13]
Research
At Columbia University Medical Center, she began preclinical research investigating
secretin and
oxytocin in the brain and the effects of combined oxytocin/secretin on an animal model of
inflammatory bowel disease.[14] In 2004 she began a collaboration with
Michael D. Gershon M.D. pioneering research on the role of oxytocin in the gut. Welch and Gershon later established the Columbia University Brain Gut Initiative to further their understanding the mechanisms of nurture and they condition the brain-gut axis.[15]
Oxytocin in Perinatal Development
Welch was the
lead author of a peer-reviewed article published in the January 2009 issue of
The Journal of Comparative Neurology,[16][17] which found that
oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptors (OTR) likely play important roles in the development and functioning of the
enteric nervous system.[17][16] The 2009 study also found that OTR were present in fetal gut cells and tissue during the
perinatal period of fetal development;[17] and multiple later studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory effects of OT appear to play an important protective roles for both the
brain and the
gastrointestinal system during birth.[17]
Family interaction with infants
Welch was the
lead author of a peer-reviewed article published in the April 2014 issue of
Clinical Neurophysiology.[18][19] The results of this 2014 study indicated that the presence of physical contact and care in the
NICU has positive neurobiological effects on
preterm infants.[19][20][18] Welch's FNI approach incorporates “calming” human interactions between mothers and infants such as holding their infants, comfort touch, scent cloth exchange, eye contact, emotional expression, and skin-to-skin care.[1][19][21] Although these sorts of interactions with infants in an NICU setting appear to have positive effects on infant development, the exact benefits of such contact are difficult to predict because of genetic, environmental, and other factors that vary from case to case.[1][19] Multiple studies testing long term outcomes of family nurture intervention versus standard care have also found that this treatment appears to provide positive effects on the development of other neurocognitive functions such as language acquisition or emotional regulation.[19][21]
Awards and honors
2019 Awarded Distinguished Fellowship of the American Psychiatric Association
2014 Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Columbia University. College of Physicians & Surgeons[22]
2011 Columbia University Alumni Medal for Meritorious Service[24]
1995 Middlebury College Distinguished Alumni Award[25]
Personal life
Welch lives in New York City with her partner, Robert J. Ludwig, the managing director of the Nurture Science Program at Columbia University Medical Center's Department of Pediatrics. She has one son, and two grandsons living in Houston, Texas.
^"Collaborators". New York Psychiatric Institute, Department of Communication Sciences. New York Psychiatric Institute. Archived from
the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
^Kavanaugh, Lee Hill (April 4, 1999). "For Kids, Sometimes Hugs Can Be Enough". Knight Ridder Newspapers. The State.
^Welch, Martha G.; Welch-Horan, Thomas B.; Anwar, Muhammad; Anwar, Nargis; Ludwig, Robert J.; Ruggiero, David A. (2005). "Brain effects of chronic IBD in areas abnormal in autism and treatment by single neuropeptides secretin and oxytocin". Molecular Neuroscience. 25 (3): 259–274.
doi:
10.1385/JMN:25:3:259.
PMID15800379.
S2CID13448034.