The love of a mother can provide powerful protection against the risks facing your baby during pregnancy, according to a recent article published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Research shows that infants exposed during pregnancy to high levels of stress hormones, which pose a low risk of cognitive development, can escape this risk if their mothers are provided a loving and sensitive care during their first years of life.
This study presents the first direct evidence in humans that babies exposed during pregnancy to high levels of hormone cortisol may have difficulty paying attention or to solve problems in the future. But what may be more intriguing is the second finding of the study: that this impact disappears almost completely if the mother forge a secure connection with your baby.
"Our results give shape to the argument that fetal exposure to cortisol, which may be partly motivated by the stress level of the mother, and care received during aging combine to influence the child's neurological development," said one of the authors, Dr. Thomas O'Connor, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Rochester and director of the Wynne Center for Family Research. "If further studies confirm this future will require not only think about ways to reduce stress during pregnancy, but also promote a sensitive care to the baby by mothers and fathers."
The love of a mother
The researchers selected 125 mothers in an urban pediatric wards. Samples of amniotic fluid to measure stress hormones contained. Mothers were, on average, 17 weeks of gestation, and only taken into account in the study mothers with normal pregnancies, healthy.
When their children turned 17 months old, the researchers applied the Bayley test of child development, which is based on the realization of puzzles, symbolic play and challenges for the child's memory to measure cognitive development of children. They also observed the interaction between mothers and children through the test of the Ainsworth Strange Situation, which judges whether the mother-baby pairs show a link between them safe or unsafe.
With the results of the levels of cortisol in amniotic fluid on the one hand, and quality of the relationship between mothers and children and cognitive development of these on the other hand, the researchers looked at how the first two measures could influence the third. Children who showed an "insecure attachment" to their mothers, and had been exposed to high levels of cortisol during pregnancy, showed less ability to concentrate, reduced language development, and fewer skills to solve problems. But more interesting is that children who enjoyed a secure bond with their mothers the negative effects of prenatal exposure to cortisol on cognitive development seemed to have completely erased.
"This is very encouraging news for mothers," says O'Connor. "Pregnancy is an emotional experience for many women, and mothers and have many issues to take care and many concerns. It is a relief to know that being parenting, we can protect our babies from potential delays. "
A seed for future questions
O'Connor focuses on two important nuances in the study. The first is that the cortisol in amniotic fluid study could come from both sources, and is difficult to determine which one comes. You could, for example, pass through the placenta from a mother who suffers from anxiety to their unborn child, or could be created and secreted directly by the same baby who was suffering stress.
"While many large-scale studies have found that prenatal stress may affect child development, in particular, our study sheds some light on the 'how,'" said O'Connor. "There is still much research to better understand the exact mechanisms by which the mother may 'transfer' your stress to the baby during pregnancy."
This study is in the general theory of "fetal programming," according to which events that occur during pregnancy can affect the long-term health of the child and different aspects of their development. " Some previous studies, for example, have found that maternal diet affects the long-term risk that the child will suffer heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Along with the maternal diet, prenatal stress has emerged as another factor in the fetal programming.
"Our results support the emerging theory," said Dr. Vivette Glover, of London. "In neurology, the idea emerges that the unborn baby can feel the stress hormone levels of their mother, who programmed for increased surveillance. We are trying to determine whether this sensitivity comes from increased anxiety during childhood, and if so, what can we do about it. "
The next study team will consist of watching the same children at 6 years of age. At that time, researchers hope to give the group a more definitive test battery to see how it affects long-term interaction between elevated levels of cortisol in the womb and sensible parenting. These tests will include studies through brain imaging of children, to see if elevated levels of cortisol may be related to anatomical changes.
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