Pregnancy stress ‘affects motor skills’

The offspring of such mothers are likely to have poorer physical coordination and to be weaker, the study claimed.

The researchers conducted a longitudinal study asking 2,900 Australian mothers twice during their pregnancy whether they had experienced stressful events while carrying their child.

It found that stressful events in the latter stage of a woman’s pregnancy may increase the risk of movement and coordination deficits later in the child’s life. Having a hard pregnancy was the next most prevalent concern, while relationship tensions and issues with other children also proved a popular worry. This research suggested the stress hormone cortisol may be causing the problems. Divorce, separation, bereavement and financial problems were amongst the stressful situations discussed.

Throughout their pregnancies, women completed a questionnaire about stressful events during their pregnancies.

When these women’s children reached the ages of 10, 14, and 17 years, researchers assessed their overall motor development and coordination. The tests aimed to measure hand strength, ability to touch a finger to their nose and then back to the index finger, distance jump, heel-toe walking along a line and standing on one foot.

The scientists hope that further studies will aim on detecting and reducing maternal stress during pregnancy, as that these can have long-term effects on children’s health.

It also noted that the biggest differences in motor development outcomes were between those whose mothers had experienced no stress and those whose mothers had been very stressed.

The children were grouped into three categories-those whose mothers experienced no stress during pregnancy, those whose mothers experience fewer than three stressful events, and those whose moms experienced three or more stressful events during pregnancy.

Children born to mothers who suffered more stressful events in pregnancy recorded the worst scores on all three survey years.

“This may suggest an accumulative effect of stress on the developing fetal motor system, with small amounts of stress having a negligible effect and greater amounts having a negative effect”, wrote the authors. A reduction in motor development could be linked to poor health and difficulty performing skills such as running, throwing and writing.

Study co-author Beth Hands, professor of human movement at the university, said it showed “the importance of mothers” emotional and mental health on a wide range of developmental and health outcomes’.