Baby development helped with Mums' stress
18 May 2006
by Richard Conan-Davies
A little psychological stress of a mother doesn't seem to harm her developing baby and may even enhance its' development. This is according to research from researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Janet A. DiPietro, PhD, lead author of the study explained that "We found that modest anxiety and daily stress during pregnancy is associated with more advanced early child development. These findings remained even after accounting for levels of stress and anxiety women experienced at six weeks and at two years postpartum. Prenatal maternal stress also didn't interfere with children's temperaments, attention capacity or ability to control behavior and did not cause hyperactivity," There was an exception though. Women who regarded their pregnancy negative had children with slightly poorer attention capacity emotional control. 137 women from mid-pregnancy though their child's second birthday reported on their feelings and researchers assessed |
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