Stress Awareness Month: The long-term impact of prenatal stress

Description

One outcome that is relevant and increasingly a topic of research, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era is the impact of prenatal stress. This is the exposure of an expectant mother (and her unborn baby) to psychosocial and/or physical stress and the negative consequences this can have on the child. When the mother is under stress, this will result in the release of stress hormones – helping her to cope with the stressor at hand. But these circulating hormones can pass from mother to foetus through the placenta, affecting foetal development.