Pregnancy distress and birth outcomes: the findings of a recent study

Mental wellbeing is important during every pregnancy and during the entire period of pregnancy. Pregnant women should be given information on how to overcome stress during the perinatal period

A recent study published in the International Journal of Reproductive Biomedicine (IJRM) highlights the effects of pregnancy-specific stress on birth outcomes. (1)

Researchers from Iran conducted this study on 100 low-risk women. They evaluated the level of stress by using Prenatal Distress Questionnaire.

They found that stress during late pregnancy was more significant than mid-pregnancy in causing poor pregnancy and birth outcomes, such as lowe birth weight, height and head circumference of the neonate.

The researchers agreed that there are some limitations of the study, therefore, further research is needed to investigate the impact of pregnancy-specific stress on the birth outcomes.

Reference

Faramarzi M, Hassanjanzadeh P, Khafri S. Maternal mid- and late-pregnancy distress and birth outcome: A causal model of the mediatory role of pregnancy-specific distress. Int J Reprod Biomed (Yazd). 2019;17(8):585–590.