Pregnancy stress affects child behavior

PERTH, Australia, April 20 (UPI) -- Children born to women who undergo many stressful events during pregnancy run an increased risk of behavioral problems, researchers in Australia say.

Lead author Dr. Monique Robinson and colleagues said stressful events include financial and relationship problems, difficult pregnancy, job loss and issues with other children. Major life stressors were events such as a death in the family, Robinson says in a statement.

"What we have found is that it is the overall number of stresses that is most related to child behavior outcomes," Robinson said in a statement. "Two or fewer stresses during pregnancy are not associated with poor child behavioural development, but as the number of stresses increase to three or more, then the risks of more difficult child behavior increase."

Data were taken from Western Australia's long-term Raine Study, which recruited nearly 3,000 pregnant women and recorded life stress events experienced at 18 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. Child behavior was tracked until age 14.

The study, published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, found the percentage of women with more than two stress events was 37.2 percent while the percentage with six or more was 7.6 percent.

Robinson said the study should not make pregnant women stress further about the stress in their lives.

"These types of analyses look at overall population risk and individuals can have very differing responses," Robinson added.