How Does Stress Effect Pregnancy?

As happy as you might be about your pregnancy, there are bound to be all kinds of concerns about the many changes occurring in your body. Our healthcare system fails to inform women and their families about the role stress may play in pregnancy, especially the roll stress plays in depression.

1. How does stress affect pregnancy?

Stress causes health problems for everyone, whether it’s the financial stress of debt, employment insecurity, of hardship. High stress during pregnancy triggers physiological changes, such as increased heart rate and cortisol levels that can be directly linked to prenatal depression.

2. What kinds of pregnancy problems can these results of stress cause?

These kinds of changes in your body can affect fetal development, increasing the risk for the baby you are carrying to fail to gain weight as expected and even lead to the possibility of your baby being born prematurely.

3. How does stress during pregnancy relate to depression?

High levels of stress during pregnancy effects the ability of both mom and dad to form attachments. The depression does not go away with the birth a baby, so extends into the postpartum period after contact with an obstetrician ends. Since the dad is often not involved in prenatal care visits, there is little chance of the depression related to stress to be recognized by the medical profession. It’s important to understand that depression of either the mom or the dad, or both, has a significant effect upon a child. The depression and it’s consequences for a child and family can last for years.

4. What are the signs I might be depressed during pregnancy?

• Do you feel overwhelmed by the ability to control your life?
• Do you feel you are unable to manage personal problems?
• Do you feel things in your life are just not going your way?
• Do you recognize when you feel stressed?

If you find yourself experiencing feelings like this, consider that you might be suffering from depression and ask your doctor for help.

5. Does postpartum depression appear differently between men and women?

Postpartum depression appears much differently in men than in women. Part of the problem is that men are not included in prenatal visits, so there is no opportunity for the depression to be recognized by physicians. In addition, our culture teaches men not to complain, so even if they feel depressed, they may be disinclined to talk about it.

Postpartum depression appears later in men, sometimes three to six months after the baby is born, and it generally lasts longer than it does in women. Men often act out and take risks when they have postpartum depression. Often they avoid dealing with the problem at home and their feeings about them by seeking relationships elsewhere.

6. What are the consequences of postpartum depression?

Depression often creates an inability to bond with your child. From the child’s perspective, this inability to bond means the parent seems withdrawn and less able to engage in nurturing behaviors with the child. This even extends to not properly paying attention to the child’s safety. This has been linked to a higher risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. With an impaired ability to bond with your child, the child can become aggressive from the age of two years and lasting well into the child’s teen years.

7. If you feel depressed, what should you do?

You need to seek strong social support to improve your ability to offset the effects of your depression on your child. The family is an interconnected system. Depression of either parent and the inability to bond with a child will directly effect a child’s behavior. Untreated maternal and paternal depression can lead to long-term issues with a child’s emotional and behavioral health.