Stress during Pregnancy: How Bad is it? - @healthbiztips
Ill effects of stress during pregnancy
Pregnancy can be both a momentous and challenging period in a woman's life so it should be take with utmost care, right? But, certain highly stressful life events like sudden death of a loved one, loss of job, or divorce can compromise the development and well-being of both the mother and the unborn child.
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| Stress during Pregnancy: How Bad is it? - @healthbiztips photo credit: @homarosa Kewei Hu @unsplash |
@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan
Prolong high levels of stress can have negative impact to the unborn child like still birth or miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.
The health and well-being of the pregnant mother is also endangered when she suffers from high levels stress. It can predispose the mother to develop preeclampsia--a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure and organ damage.
The negative effects of a stressful pregnancy has on the child carries over even after birth. High levels of maternal stress during pregnancy can Increase the child's risk of developing diseases and health problems later in life like asthma, attention deficit disorder, and obesity.
Stress during pregnancy and child's brain development
Maternal stress can tamper with the child's brain development. High levels of stress during pregnancy can cause the child to have short attention span and lower IQ.
Stress can be inherited?
Stress and it's bad effect to the mental, metabolic, and cardiovascular health can be passed on to offspring for up to four generations.
If a mother has an extreme fear or anxiety over something, then her child has a high probability of developing fear of it as well, which holds true even though the child has not experienced the event that could have lead to the development of that particular fear.
Related articles: 3 Unwanted Inheritance from your Parents
Impact of daily stress during pregnancy
Stress is something we can't totally avoid. But don't worry, stressors that people usually encounter in their day-to-day life, like traffic and working, usually do not cause adverse effect mother and fetus.
Psychological impact of unwanted pregnancy
Unwanted pregnancy can have devastating effect to the mother's mental health. A study has shows that it actually increases the risk of depression by 20% to 22%.
In conclusion, we see that high levels of stress during pregnancy can have undesirable effects to both the mother and child, so it is crucial that the pregnant woman encountering extreme levels of stress to reach out and seek help.
Resources:
Bahk, Jinwook et al. “Impact of unintended pregnancy on maternal mental health: a causal analysis using follow up data of the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC)” BMC pregnancy and childbirth vol. 15 85. 3 Apr. 2015, doi:10.1186/s12884-015-0505-4
Tate, E B et al. “Do stressed mothers have heavier children? A meta-analysis on the relationship between maternal stress and child body mass index” Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity vol. 16,5 (2015): 351-61.
González-Ochoa, Raquel et al. “Evaluating Stress during Pregnancy: Do We Have the Right Conceptions and the Correct Tools to Assess It?” Journal of pregnancy vol. 2018 4857065. 1 Feb. 2018, doi:10.1155/2018/4857065
