High levels of anxiety in pregnant women likely to cause low birth weight

October 29, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News, Pregnancy

Overly anxious pregnant women may cause low birth weights in their children, especially during the third trimester, according to newly published research.

A growing amount of research is being conducted on pregnant women, searching for links between the mother’s psychological traits and birth outcomes. Among the new research is a recently published study in the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology that reveals how anxiety impacts pregnant women and their fetus.

The study was conducted on low-income women of whom 50 percent of the participants were African American and 50 percent Caucasian. When the research was conducted, it was fully recognized that people in this group already had proclivities to alcohol and cigarette use. What the researchers were interested in discovering was how anxiety affects birth outcomes beyond things like race, education, and alcohol and cigarette use.

The researchers found that women who suffered from severe anxiety were at severe risk during all trimesters of having low birth weight. Of those women who had high anxiety during the third trimester, outcomes of significantly smaller babies were seen. Researchers found little significant evidence to show that anxiety affected baby development during the first and second trimester.

The researchers hope that the research adds to the growing awareness that psychology is just as important as physiology in the realm of delivering healthy babies.

“One way to prevent health problems in children and adults is to focus care on the prenatal period,” said the authors.

“It is key to pursue further research which addresses interventions to ameliorate the effects that a woman’s trait anxiety has on the development of fetuses.”