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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
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Anxiety and Stress Disorders |
Stress in Pregnancy10/25/2001 |
I`ve just found out that I`m pregnant and suddenly I can`t read enough about pregnancy. One of the things that keeps coming up is how important it is for a mother-to-be to keep her stress and anxiety levels low. Well, I may have had a relatively normal level of anxiety before all of my reading, but now I find that I`m really "stressed" about not being stressed! It`s one more thing to worry about in having a healthy pregnancy. I`ve read that while enduring stress, your body releases hormones that are bad for the fetus. How can I know if I`m keeping my stress at a reasonable level? How can I minimize stress and anxiety? Thanks very much.
Pregnancy can be stressful for new moms. Some research (mainly done in Europe) has shown that `severe stress and anxiety` can affect fetal behavior and fetal brain development. The studies usually studied women with major stress, such as occurs with major life changes (other than the pregnancy), severe emotional trauma (like a recent death in the family or abuse or rape), major financial losses and no social support systems in place. Severe anxiety and depression usually meant that a woman felt bad enough to see a doctor or a therapist about it, and the doctor diagnosed it as severe. Most of the daily life stresses faced by women in pregnancy are NOT associated with any fetal growth or development problems. The changes noted in fetal development, while they could be measured in a laboratory, were not necessarily associated with any serious changes once the baby was born with regards to behavior, intelligence, and development. Therefore, the role of stress and anxiety in a pregnant woman on her growing baby is not entirely known. No one can eliminate stress from her life, but a woman can find healthy ways to deal with it so it doesn`t lead to anxiety, depression and illness. These include using good nutrition and exercise to maintain a healthy physical body, avoiding the use of chemical toxins such as nicotine, alcohol and other drugs and having and using a nurturing, supportive group of family and friends. People with a good support system tend to have fewer physical and emotional problems related to stress than do those without such systems. Congratulations on your pregnancy. It sounds like your level of stress is nothing that should harm your child.
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Nancy Elder, MD Associate Professor Department of Family Medicine College of Medicine University of Cincinnati |
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