How does stress really effect pregnancy?
Friday, August 27th, 2010 at
7:15 am
I am just wondering because I am 39 weeks pregnant. The last couple of months have been really stressful. I have had to move back into my mothers house and now my husband just lost his job today. I have been extremely stressed out and depressed about it, but not all the time, just some of the time i cant help but think about it. I heard that stress/depression can cause development issues with the child. SO NOW IM STRESSED AND WORRIED ABOUT THAT!! any input would be great.
Tagged with: Effect • Pregnancy • really • stress
Filed under: Pregnancy Stress
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What you need to know:
Pregnancy is a stressful time for many women. You may be feeling happy, sad and scared—all at the same time. It’s okay to feel like you do. Very high levels of stress may contribute to preterm birth or low birthweight in full-term babies, however, so you should try to learn how to cope with it.
What you can do:
Recognize that you do indeed feel stressed. Accepting the fact you are stressed and identifying the situations that cause you stress are the first steps in helping reduce it. You can also help reduce your stress by:
* Eating regularly and nutritiously and drinking lots of water.
* Resting when you can—and when your body needs it.
* Exercising (with your health care provider’s okay).
* Relaxing by meditating, listening to music or writing in a journal.
* Resisting any urges to drink alcohol, smoke or take herbal products or drugs (except those prescribed by your health care provider).
* Staying away from stressful people and stressful situations, when possible.
* Talking—to your partner, friends, relatives and health care professionals. If you feel overwhelmed, talk with a trained counselor or other mental health professional.
* Going to all your prenatal care appointments. This will give you the reassurance that everything is okay with your baby or let your health care provider know about a problem while there is still time to do something about it. You’ll feel less stressed because you know you are doing the best for your baby.
In rare cases, extreme stress can interfere with normal ovulation in women and may reduce sperm production in men. However, while it’s possible for stress to cause infertility, it’s far more common for infertility to cause stress. According to the ASRM, “infertility can be a major crisis because the important life goal of parenthood is threatened.” For couples who aren’t immediately successful in their efforts to conceive, stress-reduction techniques can help keep this anxiety in check.
Okay yes stress does effect not only you but your baby as well. To take stress off of you the only thing that can happen is you could go into labor this does not effect baby like it does you. You are full term so this could cause you to start going into labor and it’s not pre-term and wouldn’t hurt you are baby. So I hope your mind it put to rest of it hurting the baby isn’t happening. Many ladies stay stressed the whole pregnancy.
Stress and Pregnancy
Some types of stress are beneficial, helping us to face challenges and achieve goals; however, high levels of stress can cause serious health problems. During pregnancy, excessive stress and anxiety can harm not only you, but your baby as well.
Stress during pregnancy can cause excessive fatigue, anxiety, loss of appetite or overeating, headaches and backaches, and can disrupt sleep. If intense stress persists for a long period of time, it can lower your resistance to infections, cause high blood pressure, heart disease, preeclampsia, and preterm labor. In babies, stress is thought to cause low birth weight, emotional and gastrointestinal problems, and may be a cause of colic.
According to the results of a study by the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, women who experienced high levels of stress around 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have high levels of the hormone corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) in their blood. CRH is produced by the brain as well as the placenta and has been linked with preterm labor in several studies.
Another type of stress-related hormones called catecholamines (the “fight-or-flight” hormones) are also released during times of intense stress. These are thought to contribute to low birth weight in full-term babies because they constrict blood flow to the placenta, robbing the fetus of nutrients and oxygen it needs for proper growth. These hormones also strain the fetus’s developing nervous system, and can cause the fetus to become accustom to feeling stress and his system becomes constantly prepared to overreact to stimuli. Babies of mothers who had a great deal of stress over the course of their pregnancy show more emotional and gastrointestinal problems and researchers believe this may be one of the causes of colic.
If your job or work environment is stressful, you may need to consider making some changes, such as reducing the number of hours or days you work or the tasks you perform. If you are a stay-at-home mom with small children, ask your partner or a friend or family member to help out whenever possible. A good support network -of your partner, family or friends – can help relieve stress by providing information, an emotional outlet, and physical help with chores and errands.
Practicing stress-reduction techniques can also help keep you calm and healthy. These include regular exercise, meditation, relaxation, and yoga. For 20 to 30 minutes every day, focus on your breathing. Breathe slowly, steadily and deeply from your belly, not your chest. Learn to recognize tension in your body’s major muscle groups and release that tension, one by one, until you are completely relaxed.
It may be difficult to completely avoid stress; unfortunately, it is a part of our daily lives. However, try to limit your stress and anxiety and make an appointment with yourself to practice relaxation every day.
For more information:
Prenatal Massage
Prenatal Yoga
Regular Exercise During Pregnancy
It will all come together it may not seem like it now but we had a similarsituation that your in adn it’s fially coming together no 10 mos. later yes it would have been nice to happen sooner but it’s going to be okay and you’ll get through it and work it out together justremember not to take it out on each other b/c that will drive you apart and during this time you don’t need that to add to it.
it certainly does not help—-money is not everything my dear if you and hubby is living apart that will stress you too.sort your life out only you can do it.good luck
Dear Holly A., my name is Dr. D, EvG. Let me assure you that stress is normal, even for a healthy pregnancy. However you might, if you feel overly stressed, need to talk with your physician. It seems that you are also well over nine months along. Though I have done several rotations in the OB/GYN area, I would have to defer you to a specialist.
All in all, I would feel a sense that you are over-worried about things. If you are proactive about your life’s problems, they work themselves out.
I cannot specify help anymore than I already have. To help you anymore, I would need to speak with you myself. However I suspect that would take time. And you most likely need to address these issues to your physician, OB/GYN.
If you do need to ask me anything further I will do my best to help.
If you have any other concerns, do feel free to contact me. I will do my best to steer you in the right direction. This was general advice, and does not constitute a replacement for visiting your own personal physician.
Vote Dr.D., EvG. Best Answer!!!
Stress is part of life and we all have to deal with it and your baby will be fine as long as you deal with your stress safely ie not drowning yourself in alcohol or cookies. When I found out I was pregnant with my 4th baby, my son who was then 20 months was diagnosed with a brain tumor and we were told that he had to have a massive brain operation or die. It took 5 months of extensive testing to map out exactly where and what they could take out to save him and they told us chances are he wouldn’t come out of it. He did survive the surgery and suffered a stroke that left him paralysed on his left side for 3 months (he’ll need therapy the rest of his life probably for that) Needless to say, that’s ALOT of stress to have when you are pregnant and I did suffer from fainting and preterm labor from the stress, but my baby girl was born perfectly normal and healthy and is developmentally fine. You need to find something to help you relax if even for a minute. For me, I found the rosary to be a source of comfort and to help relieve my stress for a few moments when my son would be asleep in the PICU. You just need to find what comforts you and try to work it in when you can. Good luck!