Stress can affect baby’s development

Researchers have linked stress experienced by pregnant women to higher incidences of mental and behavioural problems in their children. The research, presented recently 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 per cent of the one million diagnoses of ADHD, cognitive delay and anxiety in children could be due to the stress experienced by their mothers during pregnancy.

The researchers followed 125 women who were having amnocentesis- 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, and 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. More info 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.
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