The Effects of Stress on the Unborn Child
Stress Affects the UNBORN child. What a big title and what a big fact! Yes, stress can simply change the world of a little baby who has not even seen it! A new individual who could live happy and healthy. Just like hundreds of babies who have born with him/her in a same day. Or maybe even in a same minute but, in a quite different situation. Could a child’s future be different if the mother’s stress and trauma levels are controlled during pregnancy? There is much evidence to suggest that it could. Here we discuss The Effects of Stress on the Unborn Child.
Stress Factors
There are several factors that threaten the physical and emotional health of the little baby. This happens even before drawing his/her first breath. Is it fair on one so helpless that they should be exposed to that? One who has not even decided to come to this world of his or her own accord? A mother has a huge responsibility when she carries a child in her womb.
To answer these questions is very difficult. However, through education, the prevention of these issues is much easier than simply judging a situation that perhaps cannot be avoided.
Stress Gets Passed On
Nowadays, one of the most common factors that cause unhealthy babies is stress. Stress is a silent disease and is such a familiar part of women’s lives that many just squeeze a pregnancy right into all the hub-bub.The placenta of a pregnant woman can transmit more than just nutrition and oxygen – it also transmits hormones and the chemicals related to stress.
Researchers have found that stress is transmitted through the placenta, altering the levels of a protein that can affect brain development in the foetus. Maternal stress is a key risk factor for neuro-developmental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.
The Effect of Substance Abuse
A pregnant mother who is stressed will often use substances such as alcohol, caffeine, cocaine and tobacco during pregnancy which could harm their babies. During excessive stress or emotional trauma, her baby may be born with certain deficiencies that may persist into adulthood and cause more complications.
For example, if you remain under stress long-term, your body will create a certain hormone which causes high blood pressure. This hormone can reach the baby in womb and raise the baby’s set point blood pressure for ever. When this baby reaches adulthood, he or she is likely to suffer from high blood pressure.
Other Stresses and Lack of Support
On the other hand, lots of women during their pregnancy face issues such as the break-up of their marriage, physical or emotional abuse, or simply disinterested and uninvolved partners who prefer staying out to staying home and supporting their pregnant partner. These mothers experience constant stress, shame and depression during pregnancy or after giving birth.
The babies of these mothers are exposed to a variety of stress hormones, toxins and malnutrition inside the womb. Some of these babies will continue to live in the same or often worse noxious environment at their parent’s home. No wonder some will later become hyperactive, under-active, inattentive, or temperamental and exhibit poor self-control. Many of these children are later medicated with some medicine. Not everyone understands that the problems a child exhibits today may have resulted from events that occurred several years ago.
On the other hand, maternal stress is also linked with imperfections in the developing nervous system of the child in the womb, which can lead to problems of perception, thinking, and memory. Unfortunately, sometimes there is no treatment for these problems either.
Don’t Forget to Take Care of Yourself
When mothers are stressed they lose sight of what is really important: taking care of themselves. When they don’t take good care of themselves they can’t feed themselves or their child properly and they don’t rest enough. All of these deficiencies lead to unhealthy babies.
Put all together, no one else can give birth to a woman’s baby: the mother is the best caregiver for herself and the baby. When she realises how important it is to provide the best environment for her developing child, the mother will deepen her investment in her health during pregnancy by making sure that she gets enough nutrition from the food she eats, as well as avoiding stressful situations.
Become Educated
So, if you are already pregnant or have a plan to have a baby in the future, it would be wise to become educated about stress and how to control it during pregnancy. Pregnancy itself creates stress and if you already have other stress in your life on top of that, you will need to learn how to cope, as stress levels can double or rise even more during the pregnancy. If you don’t know how to lower your levels of stress you could infect another new person who will be born with more physical and emotional problems than you, which would be a big tragedy in your life and the life of your child.
Sometimes, tolerating and carrying your issue is much easier than letting it become your children’s issue, because when it does you need to realise that that you were the main source of it. You cannot blame your child for being restless and demanding if your child was frightened from the moment that it was conceived. If you are in a violent relationship it is very important to put yourself in a safe place, not only for your own protection but also for the welfare and the future of the child in your womb.
written by volunteer contributor Azadeh Vafaee on 10th March, 2014
♡~♥~♡
.
♥ Thank you Azadeh Vafaee for making this valuable contribution to our site.
.
♡~♥~♡
.
