That maternal stress affects the baby during pregnancy is nothing new. By physiological processes that are triggered in the woman's organism, the baby is able to perceive the mood of his mother.
So far, the baby's behavior inside the womb was not noticed when the mother has signs of stress, so a team of researchers from the universities of Durham and Lancaster have decided to study it and have published 4D ultrasound images to teach us how are the baby's gestures inside the belly of a stressed mother.
Are the faces and gestures of a stressed mother's baby different from those of a non-mother's baby? Apparently yes.
The pregnancy of 15 babies between 24 and 36 weeks of gestation has been followed up and their mothers were asked about their level of stress in recent weeks.
Scientists have observed that babies of stressed mothers tend to touch their face more often with their left hand. The more stress, the more babies touched their faces with that hand.
This has led them to consider a possible relationship between mother's stress and laterality in babies, that is to say if they will be left-handed or right-handed, and the consequences in their development, since for example, the left laterality has been related to an increased risk of ADHD and schizophrenia.
But more studies are needed to deepen this theory. So far, what they have been able to conclude is that fetuses can detect the mother's stress and express it that way, with gestures that have caught their attention.
They have also seen that babies of mothers suffering from stress yawned by opening their mouths more than babies of mothers who did not suffer from it, although we do not know exactly what this finding suggests.
As you know, the conclusions of the studies are not absolute truths. In this case, analyze Baby gestures inside the belly of stressed mothers It is just a path that opens and will surely lead to further research.
What we do know is that maternal stress increases cortisol levels affecting the biochemical balance inside the uterusAnd, of course, this affects the baby.
Therefore, the recommendation is to avoid stress in pregnancy, or reduce it as much as possible, using relaxation techniques, meditation, breathing or doing any activity that makes you feel good and disconnect from everyday worries.
