Being stressed during pregnancy can have really bad effects on your fetus and your childs development down the line. This is pretty scary. Did anyone else know this?
Stress in pregnancy 'can affect child's development'
Researchers have linked stress experienced by pregnant women to higher
incidences of mental and behavioural problems in their children.
The
research, presented yesterday at a Royal College of Psychiatrists
conference in London, suggests high levels of the stress hormone
cortisol in amniotic fluid in the womb could affect the development of
the brains of foetuses, affecting their future social skills, language
ability and memory.
Vivette Glover, of Imperial College London,
said there was now reason to believe that 15% of the 1m diagnoses of
ADHD, cognitive delay and anxiety in children could be due to the
stress experienced by their mothers during pregnancy.
She told
the conference: "We found that if the woman had a partner who was being
emotionally cruel to them while they were pregnant it had a significant
effect on their baby's development. It shows that the partner has a big
role to play."
The researchers followed 125 women who were having
amniocentesis - samples of amniotic fluid taken from the womb - for
other medical reasons and used samples from the test to measure their
cortisol levels. They conducted stress analysis of the women before and
after birth, then tested their babies at 18 months.
They found
that those who experienced stressful events during pregnancy had lower
mental development scores independently of what had happened to them
after they were born. Serious conflicts with partners, including
domestic violence, were the biggest causes of stress.
"These
babies performing worse on development scores were exposed to high
level of cortisol in the womb," said Kristin Bergman, the lead Imperial
researcher on the paper.
Previous research has linked mothers'
stress levels to their future child's mental health and cognitive
ability but this is the first to make the cortisol link, and there have
also been conflicting findings. Last year, American scientists reported
that moderate levels of stress were linked to more advanced mental
ability in children by the age of two.
Criticisms surround the
area of research because it is hard to blame the exposure in the womb
to stress while ruling out that the babies' social environment after
birth has an effect. The researchers behind this study say they have
identified cortisol as a cause, ruling out the possibility that
environmental factors after the baby was born had an effect.
Ms
Bergman said: "This should not immediately worry women who are
expecting a baby, but it has a number of implications for health
strategies. We believe this is proof of a convincing argument for
screening all mothers for stress during pregnancy." The findings of the
research are being submitted for peer review and publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jan/27/health.healthandwellbeing
