Further, the researchers have examined the subjects’ children and recorded the overall coordination as well as the ability to control body movements at three time points- when they were 10, 14 and 17 years old.
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It also noted that the biggest differences in motor development outcomes were between those whose mothers had experienced no stress and those whose mothers had been very stressed.
Results showed that the kids born to mothers who experienced the most stress in pregnancy had the lowest scores on motor development during all 3 survey years.
Researchers discovered that children born to mothers who went through more than two stressful events during pregnancy had performed poorer on all three tests, compared to the kids of mothers who experienced fewer stressful events.
The new study was published October. 14 in the journal Child Development.
At 18 weeks pregnant, the women completed a questionnaire about stressful events during their pregnancies, which included financial difficulties, losing a friend or relative, separation or divorce, marital problems, pregnancy problems, losing a job or moving.
Instead, he suggested that researchers do a follow up study and find whether stress was associated with more important coordination problems, in the likes of riding a bicycle or buttoning buttons.
“It’s not like if you had a stressful pregnancy, you’re guaranteed to have a child with motor development problems.it’s just that they were lower on the motor development scale”, she said.
“This may suggest an accumulative effect of stress on the developing fetal motor system, with small amounts of stress having a negligible effect and greater amounts having a negative effect”, the study said.
Women who had to deal with three or more stressful events gave birth to the least coordinated children, said researchers. This may be because later pregnancy coincides with the development of a brain region called the cerebellar cortex, involved in controlling movement, the researchers said.
Commenting on their findings, study coauthor Prof.
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According to the livescience.com report, the “programmes aimed at detecting and reducing maternal stress during pregnancy” might improve the long-term outlook for these children, said Beth Hands, a professor of human movement at the University of Notre Dame in Australia. “Pregnant women who are under stress could be counseled about cost-effective stress-reduction techniques, such as gentle exercise”. However, with intervention and support, this can be improved in a number of cases.
