From: Chicago Tribune

Threats to the fetus during pregnancy

Chicago Tribune:

Poor nutrition in the womb and infancy can reprogram the body’s organs, setting the stage for disease decades down the road, according to the fetal origins theory. Much less is known about the impact of environmental and psychological exposures, but some potential threats include:

Depression: In a study published in Psychological Science, pregnant women were checked for depression before and after birth. Researchers found that babies tended to thrive if their mothers were healthy both before and after birth and also if they were consistently depressed. What slowed the infants’ cognitive or physical development were changing conditions — a mother who swung from depressed before birth to healthy afterward or vice versa. Long-term studies are needed to determine what having a depressed mother might mean to a child’s health later on.

Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.