The stress experienced by the mother during pregnancy; It can also affect the mental development, physical health and personality structure of the baby. It can even increase the baby's susceptibility to chronic diseases later in life. For this reason, mothers should be provided with a peaceful and stress-free environment as much as possible during pregnancy, and the biggest task falls to the spouses and families.
The stress experienced by the mother during pregnancy; It can also affect the mental development, physical health and personality structure of the baby. It can even increase the baby's susceptibility to chronic diseases later in life. For this reason, mothers should be provided with a peaceful and stress-free environment as much as possible during pregnancy, and the biggest task falls to the spouses and families. From Memorial Health Group Medstar Topçular Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Op. Dr. Müjde Şekeroğlu gave information about the effects of the stress experienced by expectant mothers during pregnancy on the baby.
Stress directly affects the baby in the womb.
The sources of stress experienced during pregnancy are different. It may be due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, storms or causes that cannot be prevented such as war and terrorism; Domestic violence can also result from negative human relationships at home or at work. Whatever the cause, stress is a threat to body balance and the body creates a variety of structural, functional and behavioral responses to return to the original condition. This, in turn, has adverse effects on the mental and physical health of the developing baby. In addition to negatively affecting brain development; It can cause premature birth, slowdown in the baby's growth rate, low birth weight and lag around the baby's head.
Stress affects mother and baby in two ways.
Studies conducted on babies exposed to stress in the womb show that the incidence of emotional problems and behavioral disorders is high in the future. Stress experienced in the prenatal period affects maternal and infant health in two different ways. First, the body is directly affected by the increase in the secretion of stress hormones. Secondly, unconscious behaviors such as substance use and not going to pregnancy check-ups in mothers experiencing stress symptoms are indirectly affected by maternal and infant health.
The stress experienced by the baby in the womb can lead to the following tables in the future:
- Decreased intellectual activity and problem-solving ability
- delayed language acquisition
- low IQ scores
- Anxiety disorder
- hyperactivity
- Depression
- Autism
susceptibility to schizophrenia
If the stress is experienced between the 12th and 22nd weeks of pregnancy, the effect may be greater. Increased stress hormones in the mother may decrease the blood flow through the placenta and cause a decrease in oxygen. Under normal conditions, the placenta reduces the transmission of the stress hormone from the mother to the baby, but in case of long-term stress, the amount of hormone transferred to the baby increases as the enzyme in the placenta that neutralizes the stress hormone decreases. Increasing stress hormone makes structural changes in the baby's brain and increases the susceptibility of individuals to psychopathological disorders by causing an increase in the stress response in advanced stages.
Prenatal stress increases susceptibility to chronic diseases later in life. Epigenetic mechanisms, that is, environmental conditions, which determine which genes will be active, cause a person's appearance and health to be affected. Unhealthy gene activations may occur in the baby who is exposed to high amounts of cortisol (stress hormone) in the womb. For example, the probability of obesity in the baby of a mother who had a pregnancy during the famine is very high. Because their genes work as if there is a shortage in the external environment and they tend to store fat.
High amounts of stress hormones also disrupt the healthy intestinal flora, negatively affecting the immune system. Recently, there are studies showing that a change in telomere length in cord blood leukocytes is associated with pregnancy-specific stress. Studies have shown that exposure to prenatal stress is associated with shorter telomere length. It has been confirmed by studies that telomere shortening plays a universal role in shortening the lifespan of human cells, and that this also plays a role in aging. Well; The stress experienced in the womb makes the body more vulnerable to the stress in the adult period.
Especially since the baby of the mother-to-be, who is exposed to stress caused by domestic violence and lack of communication, is likely to have a difficult personality structure in the future, it may be a cause of stress for her family and society.
The process of pregnancy and birth affects childhood and adolescence, behavior and emotional processes in adulthood, personality structure, way of coping with life and events, all our relationships, in short, all human history. For this reason, providing mothers with a peaceful and stress-free environment as much as possible during pregnancy will have positive results in terms of individual and public health.
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