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NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published July 11 2008

How Stress in Pregnancy Affects Your Baby
by Katherine East

(NaturalNews) We know that extreme stress is bad for any living
creature and that it can lead to disease and health degradation in our
bodies. Pregnancy in itself is a stressful time on a woman's body. The
normal physical and hormonal changes can be quite daunting for a first
time mom. In this day and age we live in incredibly stressful times.
We worry about things close to home like our finances, our
relationships with those close to us as well as our safety and
security as a nation.

Coupled with these, many women work for as long as possible during
pregnancy to maximize their maternity leave after the baby is born.
The reality is that excessive stress during pregnancy can have some
severe consequences for the health of your unborn baby if you don't
learn how to manage it.

It's already known that extreme stress during pregnancy can lead to
increased risk of miscarriage in early pregnancy. In the later stages
of pregnancy, extreme stress can lead to premature labour, premature
birth and low birth-weight babies. The latest findings indicate that
prenatal stress can also increase the risk of a baby being born with
asthma or allergies.

Harvard Medical School in Boston recently presented their findings of
a study done on a group of urban moms and their babies. They surveyed
more than 387 mothers with a questionnaire about stress levels to
assess the following areas of their lives:

* financial stress

* health and well-being

* relationships

* home environment

* community safety

The mothers' exposure to varying levels of dust mite allergens were
measured in their homes. The effects on the foetus were measured by
drawing cord blood from the babies at birth. Immunoglobulin E (IgE)
levels were measured to determine how stress had influenced the
development of a baby's immune system. Data was controlled to
compensate for maternal age, race, smoking, education, history of
allergy and asthma, the child's gender and the season of birth.

Babies born to mothers who are experiencing extreme stress levels had
more immunoglobulin E (IgE) in their blood at birth than babies who
are born to mothers with normal stress levels. Immunoglobulin E (IgE)
is an immune system compound (antibody) that indicates an immune
system response. This suggests that these babies would be more likely
to have asthma or allergies because Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is an
antibody involved in allergic and asthmatic reactions. Obviously this
is not conclusive as there are many other factors that determine
whether a child will be asthmatic or allergy prone but certainly
elevated immunoglobulin E (IgE) is "suggestive" of an increased risk.

How Does Stress Affect Us?

It is thought that stress makes cells more permeable (weakens the
body's cells) and so it becomes more susceptible to allergens and that
even low levels of exposure to an allergen could trigger a reaction.
Stress also suppresses the immune system thereby making us more
susceptible to sickness as well as being less able to deal with
allergens.

Suggested Ways To Minimize the Stress Response

So what's a pregnant mom to do? Here are a few common sense
suggestions for the benefit of yourself and your unborn child:

* Stop Smoking

* Limit alcohol intake but preferably give it up completely

* Some form of light exercise is very beneficial to help the body deal
with stress (yoga is particularly helpful)

* Eat a healthy diet with fresh vegetables and fruit to optimize your
nutrient intake

* Avoid people who irritate you (easier said than done if you live
with them)

* Get adequate rest (also easier said than done when a growing tummy
is in the way)

* Deep breathing, visualization and meditation

* This may seem silly but have a good laugh once in a while

Dr. Ashlesha Dayal is a maternal fetal medicine specialist at
Montefiore Medical Center, and an assistant professor of obstetrics
and gynecology at Albert Einstein Medical College in New York City.
She said: "There's definitely emerging data that stress in pregnancy
can affect the pregnancy in different ways; for example, stress has
been linked to growth restriction, decreased bonding, and even preterm
delivery. So, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that it would
precipitate a disease that's triggered by stress." (See reference
below article)

But, added Dayal, "This is a small study that needs to be validated.
We really need more numbers to verify this association."

The study discussed above is called the Asthma Coalition on Community,
Environment and Social Stress (ACCESS) project and is aiming to
explore the potential causes of asthma in a minority and urban
population. The findings were presented to the American Thoracic
Society in Toronto in May of this year (2008).

Reference:

((http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...)

About the author
Katherine Oosthuis manages and writes for a health and nutrition
website Detox For Life . Her passion is to make research available to
those who are looking to improve their well-being and revolutionise
their health through better nutrition and alternative medicines.

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