Pregnant? Stop Worrying About Worrying
Pregnant? Stop Worrying About Worrying
Study: Mild to Moderate Stress in Healthy Pregnant Women May Help Baby
May 17, 2006 -- Pregnant women may have one less thing to worry about, new research shows.
In the May/June issue of Child Development, researchers report that in healthy pregnant women, mild to moderate amounts of psychological stressstress may slightly help -- and not harm -- babies' development.
"These findings do not support the notion that maternal anxiety, depressiondepression, or nonspecific stress during pregnancypregnancy within normal limits poses a significant threat to early child development or behavioral regulation," write Janet DiPietro, PhD, and colleagues in the journal.
DiPietro is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"In contrast, we found modest, although consistent, support that these aspects of maternal psychological functioning are associated with more optimal early child development," the researchers add, emphasizing that the benefits to babies were "small."
The study included 94 women who took psychological tests during their pregnancy (at 24, 28, or 32 weeks) and again six weeks and two years after giving birth. The babies born from those pregnancies took developmental and behavioral tests when they were 2 years old.
The women were at least 20 years old (average age: 32); each was pregnant with only one child. Most were white. Women who experienced pregnancy-related medical conditions or complications (such as gestational diabetesgestational diabetes or preterm labor) were not included in the study.
DiPietro's team calls the mothers-to-be "well-nourished, financially stable women with wanted pregnancies" who didn't endure traumas during pregnancy and didn't show clinical levels of anxiety and depression.
The women took surveys on anxiety, depression, stress unrelated to pregnancy (such as car breakdowns), pregnancy-specific stress (such as making nursery arrangements), and attitudes toward pregnancy.
The researchers predicted that maternal stress during pregnancy would be associated with slower child development, since that's what tests on animals (including rats and monkeys) have shown. But those predictions missed the mark.
Mild to moderate levels of maternal stress during pregnancypregnancy weren't associated with slower child development or behavioral problems. In fact, such stress was linked to slightly better performance on behavioral and motor skills tests taken by the babies when they were 2 years old.
Pregnant? Stop Worrying About Worrying
Study: Mild to Moderate Stress in Healthy Pregnant Women May Help Baby
May 17, 2006 -- Pregnant women may have one less thing to worry about, new research shows.
In the May/June issue of Child Development, researchers report that in healthy pregnant women, mild to moderate amounts of psychological stressstress may slightly help -- and not harm -- babies' development.
"These findings do not support the notion that maternal anxiety, depressiondepression, or nonspecific stress during pregnancypregnancy within normal limits poses a significant threat to early child development or behavioral regulation," write Janet DiPietro, PhD, and colleagues in the journal.
DiPietro is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"In contrast, we found modest, although consistent, support that these aspects of maternal psychological functioning are associated with more optimal early child development," the researchers add, emphasizing that the benefits to babies were "small."
Stressed and Pregnant
The study included 94 women who took psychological tests during their pregnancy (at 24, 28, or 32 weeks) and again six weeks and two years after giving birth. The babies born from those pregnancies took developmental and behavioral tests when they were 2 years old.
The women were at least 20 years old (average age: 32); each was pregnant with only one child. Most were white. Women who experienced pregnancy-related medical conditions or complications (such as gestational diabetesgestational diabetes or preterm labor) were not included in the study.
DiPietro's team calls the mothers-to-be "well-nourished, financially stable women with wanted pregnancies" who didn't endure traumas during pregnancy and didn't show clinical levels of anxiety and depression.
The women took surveys on anxiety, depression, stress unrelated to pregnancy (such as car breakdowns), pregnancy-specific stress (such as making nursery arrangements), and attitudes toward pregnancy.
The researchers predicted that maternal stress during pregnancy would be associated with slower child development, since that's what tests on animals (including rats and monkeys) have shown. But those predictions missed the mark.
Stress and Child Development
Mild to moderate levels of maternal stress during pregnancypregnancy weren't associated with slower child development or behavioral problems. In fact, such stress was linked to slightly better performance on behavioral and motor skills tests taken by the babies when they were 2 years old.
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