Can Stress Hurt Your Fetus? | Newsweek To Your Health

Anxiety for Two

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So this schizophrenia study makes some sense?
There's no question that maternal reaction to different stresses and disease may affect fetal development, but it may not be seen immediately upon birth. It's called the Barker hypothesis, which is: fetal programming [reveals itself] later on in adult disease. This probably is part of the same spectrum of what happens. It's not clear why and what exactly happens. There's a lot of work going on about corticotrophin-releasing hormone, a stress hormone. There's some evidence that increased maternal stress would lead to increased levels of stress hormones in the fetus because they cross the placental barrier. There are a lot of theories about it. And there may be some truth to it.

These effects seem most profound in the first trimester, right? Why?
They are probably greater in the first trimester. It's early in the first trimester because organogenesis is occurring—when all the organs are being formed. Most of the organs are formed by the end of the sixth and seventh week. After that it's more organ growth. There's a vulnerability in the beginning, where you have actual organs being formed. People need to take folic acid supplementation before they're pregnant to prevent neural tube defects … But if the mother starts doing things like drinking and [taking drugs], it can not only have an effect in the first part of the pregnancy, it can also have an effect on the last part.

So it's not true that pregnant moms can become more lax after the first trimester?
The bottom line is you should maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout pregnancy. In the second part of pregnancy, there may not be a structural abnormality, but there may be some effect on brain growth and heart growth.

We've had a flurry of studies recently—such as the Kaiser report on the link between caffeine and miscarriage. How worried should women be?
There was a recent study that said exactly the opposite. What do you tell people?

What should women actually worry about?
I just tell people, everything in moderation—but no alcohol and no cigarettes.

How can a pregnant woman stay calm when faced with such anxiety-provoking information?
She can exercise, which is a very, very good mechanism for staying calm, because it releases endorphins. It needs to be in moderation … Start off with half a mile, go to a mile, go to two miles, whatever. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can get into shape, just with walking.

My mother told me during her pregnancy with me, she and my father moved thirteen times, my father drank heavily on-and-off, and family members reported an abusive situation (that we well know carried on the rest of their married life). I was diagnoxed with paranoid schizophrenia as a youth--which has not stuck by me as an adult, but I do continue to need to take medcations since when I cut back I quickly develop symptoms of "pre-psychosis"--although this has all be so carefully controlled I have never been symptomatic of illness for the past twenty years or so. I also try to keep my life as low-stress as possible (imagine trying to do that in this day's world!) All of my sibs are affected by symptomatic problems (I managed to do graduate work inclinical psychology and am a registered nurse) and have had a highly successful life. This means that I must keep my distance from my family, to some extent, I am learning, after being completely out of my parents' lives for twenty-seven years and recently re-united. My family's dysfunction is so grave that they cannot avoic being destructive to me and one-another. I know for a fact that ALL my mother's pregnancies were extremely stressful, but so was her life--and expect that may be the case with many of the stressful pregnancies seen, even though in this article it is talking about one major event. The 1% hat produce schizophrenia are talking about MUCH stress ovver a longer period of time than one isolated event. (By the way, there was no known history of schizophrenia in my family--but my father, himself, is known to be very paranoid at times.)

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Posted By: lisaanncross771 @ 10/09/2008 1:41:30 PM

Hmm this is pretty scary for me, when I was pregnant, My husband had cheated on me and the girl kept coming aorund and honking and causing so much stress for me...
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Posted By: bfpower @ 03/21/2008 7:47:08 PM

Interesting article, but I just have a hard time taking advice on caring for a "fetus." Call it a baby - that's what she or he is.
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Posted By: letha c. chamberlain @ 02/15/2008 2:45:11 AM

My mother told me during her pregnancy with me, she and my father moved thirteen times, my father drank heavily on-and-off, and family members reported an abusive situation (that we well know carried on the rest of their married life). I was diagnoxed with paranoid schizophrenia as a youth--which has not stuck by me as an adult, but I do continue to need to take medcations since when I cut back I quickly develop symptoms of "pre-psychosis"--although this has all be so carefully controlled I have never been symptomatic of illness for the past twenty years or so. I also try to keep my life as low-stress as possible (imagine trying to do that in this day's world!) All of my sibs are affected by symptomatic problems (I managed to do graduate work inclinical psychology and am a registered nurse) and have had a highly successful life. This means that I must keep my distance from my family, to some extent, I am learning, after being completely out of my parents' lives for twenty-seven years and recently re-united. My family's dysfunction is so grave that they cannot avoic being destructive to me and one-another. I know for a fact that ALL my mother's pregnancies were extremely stressful, but so was her life--and expect that may be the case with many of the stressful pregnancies seen, even though in this article it is talking about one major event. The 1% hat produce schizophrenia are talking about MUCH stress ovver a longer period of time than one isolated event. (By the way, there was no known history of schizophrenia in my family--but my father, himself, is known to be very paranoid at times.)