Women who are exposed to severe emotional stress during the first trimester of pregnancy are more likely to have children with birth defects, according to new research.
Researchers examined the medical records of more than 3,500 women who were exposed before or during pregnancy to extreme stress due to a male partner or older child being diagnosed with cancer, having a heart attack, or dying.
They then compared the incidence of birth defects with the incidence in a 'control' group of more than 20,000 women who had not been exposed to these events.
About 1.18% of pregnancies in women under extreme stress resulted in an infant with a birth defect.
About 0.65% of all pregnancies resulted in an infant with such malformations.
This corresponds to a greater than 80% increased risk.
For women experiencing the death of an older child during early pregnancy the risk increased almost 5-fold and if the death of the older child was unexpected the risk increased more than 8-fold.
Because stress affects many of the body's systems, including the nervous system, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, and immune system, there is good reason to suspect that severe emotional stress could cause defects, especially during the early stages of pregnancy when development in occurring at the fastest rate, researchers explain.
Babies born to the severe-stress group of women were more likely to have defects of the cranial nerve crest, a structure of cells that is thought to contribute to the development of the head and face, such as the skull, palate, teeth, nose, parts of the eyes, ears, throat and heart.
The Lancet September 9, 2000;356:875-880
This is a very powerful example of how serious emotional stress can cause damage to us when we are in our mom's womb. If the stress is serious enough to cause physical birth defects, is it that much of a stretch to believe that the stress can also cause disruptions in the brain (the limbic system) that has secondary effects on the physiology?
One of the most common reasons I am learning that people develop chronic illness is related to emotional stresses they were exposed to before the age of six, but the most significant ones seem to be related to when they were in utero.