Want a brainy baby? Keep stress free during pregnancy

Did you know that a baby can be significantly affected by the stress levels of its mother during pregnancy? 

I was reminded of this research this week when me and my other half went to the cinema. He wanted to see a high octane action adventure flick, and then pretend to be Starsky or Hutch all the way home. I, however, am the one who has to deal with the kicks from this developing baby - and in excitable situations it tends to kick more. So as I don't really need internal bruising at this stage, I managed to persuade my hubby to come and see an animated comedy instead.

What a good decision. My baby spent 90 minutes being flooded by feel-good endorphins rather than thinking that there was a war going on out there.

In the womb an unborn baby hasn't got much to go on in making sense of the world. All it can do is hear noises and sense how its mother is reacting to the world by the hormones racing round her system.

If she is stressed she will be releasing specific hormones like cortisol and adrenalin to prepare her for fight or flight situations and give her the energy and focus to respond to emergencies. And all hormones are passed to the developing foetus from a very early age - from just 17 weeks, in fact.

The theory is that this is a process of education. The baby is supposed to learn from these environmental clues what life is like beyond the womb. If it's a jungle out there, the baby needs a certain level of programming to prepare being born into danger. However I don't live in a jungle. I live in a leafy London suburb, so high stress hormones would be misrepresenting the situation somewhat!

Yet there are consequences. Research has shown that when a mother's cortisol levels rise, so do those of her baby. The babies of stressed mothers are also more likely to be anxious and to show signs of attention-deficit disorder later in life. And - here's the clincher - babies exposed to higher levels of maternal stress can end up with lower IQs.

The people who produced the research stress that mothers should not worry too much about this but should aim for a healthy balanced lifestyle. For example you can reduce the effects of stress on the body through good relaxation techniques, such as yoga and massage. So if you're pregnant it's a great idea to start including this sort of thing in your routine to balance out life's little tensions.

See http://www.stress.org.uk/Massage-tips.aspx for some tips from the Stress Management Society.

As the man said: "Don't worry, be happy".

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All it can do is hear noises and sense how its mother is reacting to the world by the hormones racing round her system.