 Early life psychosocial adversity has been shown to have negative consequences on both short-term and long-term health outcomes. Recent research suggests that repeated procedural pain-related stress in the neonatal intensive care unit, NICU, can lead to long-term impairments in brain development, neurodevelopment, programming of stress systems, and increased pain sensitivity in infants born very pre-term. These findings suggest that early life psychosocial adversity can have lasting effects on the developing brain and behavior, even in the most immature neonates. This article was authored by Ruth X. Daingrenow.