Take three deep breaths, mamas.
A new study has found that girls as young as two years old could develop mood disorders and depression-like symptoms if their mothers were overly stressed during pregnancy.
The effect on the daughter is the result of higher levels of the stress hormone cortisone in the mother. The higher levels create a stronger link between parts of the child’s brain important for processing senses and emotions, causing the child to “internalise” her emotions more.
The study was published in the Biological Psychiatry Journal and shows the importance of prenatal conditions when it comes to mental health susceptibility later in life.
So if a women experiences high levels of stress during pregnancy it could have an effect on her daughter. However it apparently won’t have an effect on her son.
Even if born to stressed mothers, boys did not show the same connectivity between the sensory and emotional parts of their brain that girls did, and they did not show any signs of mood disorder resulting from the stress.
Editor of Biological Psychiatry, John Krystal, MD, said:
“Many mood and anxiety disorders are approximately twice as common in females as in males. This paper highlights one unexpected sex-specific risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders in females. High maternal levels of cortisol during pregnancy appear to contribute to risk in females, but not males.”
So, mums, we know you’ve been told time and time again but make sure to put your feet up, give yourself as much stress-free time as you can, and get lots of rest.
Life is stressful – there’s no escaping that – but try not to overdo it.
