Negative Impact of Prenatal Stress

Posted by Ron Ball

Jun 23, 06

What many people don’t understand about stress overload is that it isn’t just the mental and emotional toll it takes on a person, it’s the chemical and biological impact stress has on our bodies. Chronic stress causes physical damage incrementally over time. It creeps up on you. One of the areas where there has been a lot of medical research that you may not be aware of is on prenatal stress. Here are some findings. Please note that all of these articles refer to more than “normal” amounts of stress or chronic stress.

• Although there has been a lot of research on genetic factors that may contribute to Autism, Researchers at the Ohio State University Medical Center studying external factors say that stress at certain times in a pregnancy may lead to changes in the brain that have been linked to autism.
• See Major Stress During Pregnancy Linked to Autism. Emotional stress can affect developing children. In a study by Danish researchers, they compared 3,560 women who had experienced a stressful event during pregnancy with 20,299 women had not experienced an emotional upset. Among the stressful pregnancies, the frequency of malformations was twice as high.
• A study presented at the 6th International Congress of Neuroendocrinology concluded that females born to mothers who experienced profound stress during pregnancy may be at greater risk for developing Fibromyalgia later in life.
• Stress may also be a factor in causing miscarriages according to a recent article in Forbes Magazine titled, Stress in Early Pregnancy Linked to Miscarriage. Also see, How Stress Causes Miscarriage from WebMD.
• On the other hand, no need to get emotionally alarmed. Some stress during a pregnancy may not be harmful but beneficial according to a study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health because it may help in developing mental and motor skills. However, it’s important to note that all of the mothers experienced “normal” stress and anxiety. With chronic or severe stress overload, the results may have been different.

The key to managing stress overload is to have ways to release excessive stress in whatever way is most appropriate and safe for you. And that may entail learning new, leading-edge ways. Of course EFT is a great way for people to relieve stress and “unwind.”

Is it safe for pregnant moms to use EFT? Yes. The only concern I’ve ever seen was on using the ankle point. Please note that the “Inner Ankle” point is NOT a point in the EFT protocol.You may also want to read, the article by Mary Lawton, Using EFT in Pregnancy and During Childbirth and an article by Sarah Holland on the Rick Wilkes site Thriving Now, titled Using EFT on Pregnancy Fears.

The whole point of this article is to make soon-to-be mothers more conscious of the ramifications that heavy stress has on their bodies and to explore how emotional factors affect pregnancies.