Maternal stress during pregnancy

But despite the research limitations, a relationship between maternal stress during pregnancy and later adult schizophrenia in offspring has been established at least in outline.37 Considerable evidence shows that maternal stress during the first trimester of pregnancy may be a particularly important risk factor for later onset of this disorder in offspring.38... 

The major mechanism that may be operating to connect maternal stress during pregnancy to postnatal psychopathology involves effects of maternal stress hormones on development of the fetal brain, particularly of the fetal hypothalamus—pituitary—... 

Everywhere on the planet, for people of similar socioeconomic class, urban life is more stressful than rural life. A rich family in Tokyo is certainly less stressed than a poor family in a Japanese mountain village, but a poor family in Tokyo is usually more stressed than a comparable rural family. Urban life stress is correlated with an increased prevalence of psychiatric disorders and also correlated with maternal stress during pregnancy. Women do not experience pregnancy disconnected from their surroundings, and as we ll see later, the impacts of maternal stress on the developing fetus can be dramatic. 

One important measure of the effects of maternal stress during pregnancy involves infant temperament. Maternal stress during pregnancy predicts cognitive performance deficits and fearfulness in infancy.55 Measures of temperament and behavioral reactivity in the first few years of postnatal life show the influence of prenatal stress and maternal-placental hormones.56... 

Bergman, K., Sarkar, P., O Connor, T. G., Modi, N., Glover, V. (2007). Maternal stress during pregnancy predicts cognitive ability and fearfulness in infancy. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry. 46 1454—1463. 

K. Bergman, et al., Maternal Stress During Pregnancy Predicts Cognitive Ability and Fearfulness in Infancy, Journal ofthe American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 46, no. 11 (2007) 1454-1463. 

Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy most certainly results in transient or enduring physiological and hormonal changes that may affect fetal brain development. So... 

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