Beyond the HPA-axis: exploring maternal prenatal influences on birth outcomes and stress reactivity

Mounting evidence indicates that maternal prenatal stress is associated with an increased risk of altered physiological, behavioral, emotional and cognitive outcomes in offspring (Van den Bergh et al., 2017). Maternal depressive or anxiety symptoms have been the most common measures of prenatal stress (e.g. Talge et al., 2007) and findings from many community samples have shown that they might have a detectable impact even at subclinical levels(reviewed in Talge et al., 2007; Van den Bergh et al., 2017; Madigan et al., 2018), thus broadening scientific and public health implications.
Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research