Martha G. Welch

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. She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology on November 30, 1977.

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. Here, 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. 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. 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.

Martha G. Welch (born June 21, 1944) is an American physician and researcher specializing in the fields of infant and child development. Welch currently serves as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Pediatrics and Pathology & Cell Biology at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), where she is Co-Director of the Nurture Science Program. Welch's writing and research focuses on the posited benefits of prolonged close physical contact and eye contact between mothers and children. Her book, Holding Time, helped to popularize a form of the controversial practice of attachment therapy. This proposed treatment for autism and problems in mother/child relationships has been criticized as harmful to children and lacking plausibility as a treatment.