One consideration for thinking about the relation between stress and pregnancy is the matter of stress in pregnancy and autism. As we've emphasized elsewhere, stressing about stress is a counter-productive cycle that needs to be avoided. However, knowledge is valuable.
Expecting mothers - and their partners - need to know that there is increasing evidence that stress can be harmful to their unborn children, including increasing the possibility of autism. Before launching into the science, though, a couple qualifications are valuable.
Currently the evidence comes from mice studies. Research with mice has undoubtedly offered great medical advances and provided value insights into human diseases. It does not though thereby logically follow that any finding based on mice studies can be automatically and immediately applied to humans. Whether such application is valid remains to be seen.
The second consideration is being aware of the proportionality dilemma. There is no doubt valuable insight from pumping mice full of some toxin vastly out of proportion to its use by most humans. Predicting effects from actual human use, though, isn't likely one of them.
This is important to remember when we observe that the researchers characterize the stress imposed on the mice as mild. This term though reveals nothing precise about the stress level of the mice. Nor does it reveal whether such findings do (or don't) translate to human experience. The resulting knowledge gap should not be filled with baseless assumptions fueled by our worst fears.
Bearing in mind such qualifications, we can observe the significance of research findings to the effect that the placenta of pregnant mice transmits biochemical effects of stress to the fetus. The essential element involved appears to be an enzyme called OGT. The relevant research indicates that OGT is what's inhibited in the placenta of mice who are subjected to what researchers describe as mild stress.
The stress for the mice was created by exposure to unfamiliar noises and the scent of foxes. It's not made clear why such stress - such as being exposed to threat of a natural predator - would qualify as mild.
Whatever the appropriate description of stress level in the mice, though, it seems to correlate to significantly reduced OGT levels. These reduced OGT levels triggered changes in excess of 370 of the unborn mice's brain genes.
The neurons which were altered are critically important to a number of vital brain activities in fetus development. These include regulation of energy use, protein development and nerve cell connections. This research does seem to strongly indicate that OGT helps protect development of the fetal brain.
This discovery points to an important difference between boy and girl fetuses. Males have a naturally lower level of OGT. Thus, stress in pregnancy that is sufficient to reduce OGT will likely have a greater impact on boys. This might explain the higher frequency of autism and schizophrenia documented among males.
To repeat, this is valuable knowledge that expecting mothers and their partners should understand. As with all information, though, the correct response is not increased stress! Rather it is yet further reason to be proactive in reducing pregnancy stress. See our suggestions for solutions that work .
Expecting mothers - and their partners - need to know that there is increasing evidence that stress can be harmful to their unborn children, including increasing the possibility of autism. Before launching into the science, though, a couple qualifications are valuable.
Currently the evidence comes from mice studies. Research with mice has undoubtedly offered great medical advances and provided value insights into human diseases. It does not though thereby logically follow that any finding based on mice studies can be automatically and immediately applied to humans. Whether such application is valid remains to be seen.
The second consideration is being aware of the proportionality dilemma. There is no doubt valuable insight from pumping mice full of some toxin vastly out of proportion to its use by most humans. Predicting effects from actual human use, though, isn't likely one of them.
This is important to remember when we observe that the researchers characterize the stress imposed on the mice as mild. This term though reveals nothing precise about the stress level of the mice. Nor does it reveal whether such findings do (or don't) translate to human experience. The resulting knowledge gap should not be filled with baseless assumptions fueled by our worst fears.
Bearing in mind such qualifications, we can observe the significance of research findings to the effect that the placenta of pregnant mice transmits biochemical effects of stress to the fetus. The essential element involved appears to be an enzyme called OGT. The relevant research indicates that OGT is what's inhibited in the placenta of mice who are subjected to what researchers describe as mild stress.
The stress for the mice was created by exposure to unfamiliar noises and the scent of foxes. It's not made clear why such stress - such as being exposed to threat of a natural predator - would qualify as mild.
Whatever the appropriate description of stress level in the mice, though, it seems to correlate to significantly reduced OGT levels. These reduced OGT levels triggered changes in excess of 370 of the unborn mice's brain genes.
The neurons which were altered are critically important to a number of vital brain activities in fetus development. These include regulation of energy use, protein development and nerve cell connections. This research does seem to strongly indicate that OGT helps protect development of the fetal brain.
This discovery points to an important difference between boy and girl fetuses. Males have a naturally lower level of OGT. Thus, stress in pregnancy that is sufficient to reduce OGT will likely have a greater impact on boys. This might explain the higher frequency of autism and schizophrenia documented among males.
To repeat, this is valuable knowledge that expecting mothers and their partners should understand. As with all information, though, the correct response is not increased stress! Rather it is yet further reason to be proactive in reducing pregnancy stress. See our suggestions for solutions that work .
About the Author:
Expecting moms and their birth supporters who want to keep up on all the relevant news need to follow the Stress and Pregnancy site. Also, for more great information about healthy life-choice, check out the info at our sister project, the Getting Rid of a Headache Without Medicine blog.