Yahoo News original documentary profiles how breakthrough offers new hope for struggling moms – and their unborn children

The war on poverty may have another weapon in its arsenal thanks to new scientific research. There’s increasing evidence that children exposed to the stresses of poverty are handicapped from the start — subject to biological effects that can last a lifetime. It also suggests poverty may be seen as inherited, not unlike a hereditary disease. Breakthroughs in science offer an opportunity for radical prenatal interventions that could change the trajectory of the lives of children born into poverty. In the Yahoo News original documentary “Baby Brain,” the focus is on America’s most vulnerable: single mothers living below the poverty line. We travel to West Virginia to meet three mothers, either pregnant or with young children, to get an intimate look at their lives and stresses. We also travel to Harvard University to speak with the leading expert in this field, and to Montgomery, Ala., to see how one program is harnessing scientific breakthroughs to develop executive function and essentially remap the brains of moms and their children — and to help unborn children potentially break the cycle of poverty.