A new study suggests that pregnant women who are often stressed are likely to deliver babies with poor motor development.
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Australia looked at the data of 2,900 pregnant women. When they were 18 weeks pregnant, they completed a questionnaire asking them about stressful events they had experienced during their pregnancies. Most of them responded with financial problems, the death of someone close to them, separation or divorce, relationship problems, pregnancy problems, job loss and relocation.
The children were followed until they were 10, 14, and 17 years old. They completed a movement test to assess 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 analysis showed that children who were born to mothers who were stressed during pregnancy had the lowest scores in the motor development assessment. The findings suggest that stress affects the development of the fetus, particularly the cerebellar cortex which contributes to coordination, precision and accurate timing in motor activities.
"Given our findings on the importance of mothers' emotional and mental health on a wide range of developmental and health outcomes, programs aimed at detecting and reducing maternal stress during pregnancy may alert parents and health professionals to potential difficulties and improve the long-term outcomes for these children," Beth Hands, study co-author and a professor of human movement at the University of Notre Dame Australia, said in a press release.
While the study offers crucial information on the effects of stress to unborn children, some are not fully convinced.
"The motor skills the researchers tested, such as the ability to stand on one foot, may not necessarily matter much in life," Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said to LiveScience. He called for more real-world motor tests such as riding a bicycle or buttoning buttons.
The study was published in the Oct. 14 issue of Child Development.
