Stress At Work Can Cause Low Birth Weight

June 26, 2009 by tanya  
Filed under: Baby Health, News

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Women who have more stress at work during the first trimester of pregnancy may be more likely to have a low birth weight baby.

The study looked at 8266 pregnant Dutch women, and found a link between the amount of stress the women reported and the birth weight.

Babies were seen to be 2.5 oz lighter on average, with a 50 percent higher chance of having a small for gestational age baby.

Women who worked 32 hours or more were seen to be at higher risk, with babies being on average more than 5 oz lighter.

One suggestion is that the higher levels of stress hormones, such as cortical and nor epinephrine, can effect fetal growth in the first months of pregnancy.

The study found that working during pregnancy only had an effect if there was stress involved, which effected 4 percent of the women in the study.

Researchers have advised women to consider reducing their workload early on if they feel under stress.

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