We walk in this world carrying our own stories that we have woven since we were still in a mother’s womb. After reading many journals about attachment, I realized that how we are shaped is also influenced by the condition of our mothers when they are pregnant. When a pregnant woman experiences stressful conditions, it can negatively affect the developing infant in her womb. Moreover, such stress interference can profoundly impact brain development, considering that the brain is the most crucial organ in the human body, encompassing all the faculties that define our humanity.
What’s even worse is that the effects of stress on pregnant women can affect the development of their offspring throughout their lifespan, such as metabolic functioning, and cognitive & emotional development. Studies have shown that the anxiety experienced by a mother during pregnancy is related to emotional dysregulation and neurological changes in her offspring.
A group of researchers found that the risk of schizophrenia was more common in children of mothers who experienced storms during their pregnancy. Prenatal stress can also increase stress reactivity in infants, which is related to emotional temperament later in life. Lifelong effects on the health of individuals conceived by stressed mothers are also at risk for several diseases, such as asthma and allergies.
In maternal, there are glucocorticoid hormones that increase during pregnancy. This glucocorticoid activation has pleiotropic effects on immune cells. Prenatal stress induces maternal release of glucocorticoids that enter the fetal circulation and gain access to the developing nervous system. Neurons in the developing hippocampus express large numbers of glucocorticoid receptors which are highly sensitive to the effects of stress in infants and adults.
Increases in fetal stress hormones caused by maternal stress alter hippocampal development by binding to these receptors. Thus, the development of the hippocampal system is disrupted and causes the cognitive and memory impairments observed in the offspring of stressful pregnancies. So this phenomenon can create long-term effects on learning and memory.
Other studies also show that prenatal stress not only affects brain development but also the emergence of anxious behavior, creating effects that last into adulthood.
By this means, it can be concluded that the complexity of life begins to intertwine from the earliest moments in our mother’s womb. Through an in-depth exploration of attachment and maternal conditions during pregnancy, the broad implications of prenatal stress on the developing baby are revealed. Hormonal balance and neural pathways can be disrupted, leaving long-term impacts on cognitive, emotional, and physical health. From increased reactivity to stress to increased susceptibility to diseases such as asthma and allergies, the effects of stress on the mother will impact throughout the infant’s life.
References:
Coussons-Read, M.E., 2013. Effects of prenatal stress on pregnancy and human development: mechanisms and pathways. Obstetric medicine, 6(2), pp.52–57.
Solano, M.E. and Arck, P.C., 2020. Steroids, pregnancy, and fetal development. Frontiers in immunology, 10, p.3017.
Zietlow, A.L., Nonnenmacher, N., Reck, C., Ditzen, B. and Müller, M., 2019. Emotional stress during pregnancy–Associations with maternal anxiety disorders, infant cortisol reactivity, and mother–child interaction at pre-school age. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, p.2179.
