Stress During Pregnancy and Baby’s IQ
Stress is a normal part of most womens lives and for the most part this stress is manageable but when a pregnancy comes along the tendency is to squeeze this into our lives on top of everything else as if its just another incidental factor that we have to manage in our daily life.
We become so good at managing stress that we fail to recognise the telltale signs that we have too much going on. Although we all know stress isn’t good and can’t be good for baby, its hard to define why. Most doctors will not be able to give you any clear answer as to how much stress is too much, because they just don’t know themselves.
However, Dr. Calvin Hobel, a perinatologist in Los Angeles, has spent his career studying stress during pregnancy and how it affects the baby’s development.
Effects of Stress on Foetal Development
Your baby shapes his or her development around the environmental stimuli he recieves in the womb. When you are stressed several biological changes occur. Stress hormones are released by the adrenal glands into your bloodstream which pass through the placenta to your baby. Elevated cortisol and adrenalin increases the chance of intrauterine infection and your baby builds himself to deal with this kind of stress on a permanent basis. This means your baby will actually adapt physiologically to cope with this level of stress during pregnancy. This has long-term implications for your baby once he is born.
The most noticeable effects of stress during pregnancy are pre-term labour and low birth weight. One in ten women delivers prematurely and stress is always a dominant factor. Premature babies are high risk for complications such as chronic lung disease, slowed development, learning disorders and infant mortality. Babies who experience high levels of stress in the womb have also been shown to be more likely to develop chronic health problems as adults like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The most recent findings however show that your stress level during pregnancy has a direct impact on your baby’s IQ. If you are particularly stressed out during pregnancy your baby is more susceptible to depression and irritability and will be slower to tune out repeated stimuli – this skill is an important predictor of your baby’s IQ.
So what can you do to relax?
Well next time you are rushing out the house, breakfast in one hand, phone in the other and makeup in your bag to put on in the car or on the bus to work, take a minute to stop and think about what your baby is going through.
Relaxation and completely switching off may seem like a foreign concept to you at them moment but its important that you learn this to give your baby the best possible start in life and teach him about normal emotional responses in the womb.
If you find you are always rushing round because you have left everything to the last minute, take some time to get organised on a Sunday afternoon. Plan your meals for the week, plan your exercise schedule and get your clothes ready, so you know everything is done and all you have to do is pack your bag for the day, the night before.
Make sure you take time out during the day to relax. If you take the bus to work, then read a book or listen to some music instead of texting on your phone, or worrying about things you haven’t done.
Take 15 minutes every day to get out at lunchtime and go for a walk or do some breathing exercises in the park.
Spend at least 20 minutes before bed, meditating or listening to a Pregnancy Hypnosis CD to help you relax, connect with baby and prepare for your birth.
Stress during pregnancy can be hard to manage by yourslef. If you would like more information on how to manage stress as part of your Pregnancy Fitness Plan, take advantage of the £5 trial on my Pregnancy Fitness Coaching System.
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2 Responses to “Stress During Pregnancy and Baby’s IQ”
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JANE DE LUNA on November 1st, 2009
PLEASE E MAIL ME ABOUT THE POSSIBLE INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT OF A PRE TERM BABY WHO WA BORN AT 31 WEEKS ONLT.THANK YOU
Nisha on November 5th, 2009
Hey Jane,
sorry this has taken a while to come back to you but it is not an area that I have in depth knowledge on so I had to do some research. Fortunatley my Father is a Leading Clinical Psychologist with over 50 years experience in the field.
As far as evidence suggests babies born before 33 weeks do tend to have a lower IQ than those that go full-term. And the earleir they are born, the more significant the effect.
But a lot of recent research suggests that there are ways that you can help your child catch up by the age of 7 1/2 – 8 years old.
Breastfed babies that are solely breastfed until 6 months then weaned on a mixture of clean organic foods and breastmilk until 8 months have much higher IQ’s than those on formula milk. You should try and breastfeed for as long as possible. Giving at least one breastfeed/expressed bottle of breastmilk until 1 year old if possible.
You will also need to enrich the external environment for your baby and encourage him/her to interact with toys etc from a young age.
Posture also is a big indication. You should be looking for developmental milestones like when she is able to control head movements, when she outstretches her hands can she point her fingers in different directions, do she follow movement with her eyes.
If you want to be sure you need to see a Peadiatric Development Psychologist who can test IQ from just a few weeks old.
Hope that helps!
Nisha