For generations, doctors and midwives believed when women experienced stress during pregnancy, it could harm fetal development.
But it wasn’t until relatively recently that scientists uncovered evidence showing just how much stress during pregnancy — and stress from long-ago childhood trauma experienced by mothers — can harm the mental and physical health of moms and their children.
Bay Area researchers have been at the forefront of much of this work, finding that maternal stress is associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety in children, and a higher likelihood of children becoming overweight or obese.
Hearteningly, they are also finding there are ways to blunt some of the harmful health effects of stress on mothers and children — and many of these measures can be taken outside a medical setting.
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