Pregnancy Over 40 and Stress
Stress can cause infertility, but if you're already pregnant it can affect your unborn baby. This interview explains some of the mechanisms involved with how stress hormones may be passed on to the fetus.See Also: Stress, Infertility and Miscarriage (www.getpregnantover40.com)
Being pregnant over the age of 40 doesn't have to be stressful, but I found the the healthcare professionals, although well-meaning added to my stress when they kept telling me about all the complications that can occur when you're older and pregnant.Read more about the affects of stress:
Vivette - ...we have some evidence that if the mother is stressed, this affects the function of her placenta which usually filters what passes from the mother to child, it is usually a very effective barrier to cortisol, but if she’s anxious more cortisol passes to the child. So, we think that’s part of the mechanism. The placenta’s function is affected and the foetus is exposed to more cortisol and that changes the development of the foetal brain.
Meera - It’s thought that the increase in the amount of cortisol reaching the baby could be perhaps be to do with an enzyme that isn’t functioning quite correctly, is that right?
Vivette - That’s right what we think is happening is that the placenta usually has a very high level of the enzyme that breaks down cortisol and it has been shown in animals, and we are just studying now because we think it’s probably happening in humans, that the enzyme gets what’s called down regulated, it becomes less effective, so the barrier to cortisol becomes weaker, more cortisol goes through the placenta, but we’re studying on that right now.
from:
www.thenakedscientists.com
