Psychological Health during Pregnancy

Experts have tried to figure out how the mental state of a mother and the health of the yet unborn baby are related. There is strong evidence that a pregnant woman transmits the negative effect of stress to her baby through placenta by means of bacteria in her vagina. This is what Zee News has written about it.

Beware of Stress during Pregnancy

It is known that stress increases the risk of schizophrenia and autism in a child. As it passes through the birth canal, the baby is forced into contact with the bacteria. As a result, they get into the gastrointestinal tract of the baby. But the stress, as mentioned above, changes the composition of bacteria in the vagina and in the intestinal tract of the newborn too. This often leads to changes, and sometimes irreversible changes, in the developing brain of the baby.

How Does Mother’s Stress Affect Baby’s Health?

In general, stress produces impact on the level of lactobacilli in mothers and their children. This is especially true if the baby starts to move. Meanwhile, bacteria play a very important role in the number of neurochemical reactions. Changes in gene expression, observed in the hypothalamus of mice, for example, are directly linked to the amount of lactobacilli. It should be taken into account that these genes are mostly very important for the formation and functioning of the brain.

Pregnancy Stress Experiment

Parallel studies on animals have been carried out. Scientists have focused their attention on maternal stress biomarkers. It has been revealed that OGT (O- linked N- acetylglucosamine transferase), a special protein in the placenta, disrupts the development of the brain in babies. As usual, the level of this protein turned out to be reduced if the mouse was pregnant with male mice. The level associated with stress in the mother was lower than the given indicator. We must take care of our mental health for the baby to be healthy.