I graduated with a PhD in Neuroendocrinology from the University of Edinburgh in 2002, where I worked with Prof. John Russell on understanding the central mechanisms that underlie reduced neuroendocrine responses to stress in pregnancy. I then undertook two post-doctoral research projects, both with Prof. John Russell at the University of Edinburgh. The first investigated a role for neurosteroids in restraining neuroendocrine stress responses in pregnancy. This was followed by a 5 year project investigating perinatal programming of stress responsivity and nociception in prenatally stressed offspring using rat and pig models. I have been in my current appointment as a Career Track Fellow in the Division of Neurobiology at the Roslin Institute since 2010, where I lead a research group that investigates the effects of stress exposure during pregnancy on the mother, the pregnancy, the offspring and subsequent generations. The overarching goal of the group is to understand how stress negatively affects the pregnancy and the offspring, and how the effects can be prevented or reversed.