When pregnant women face stress and anxiety, their babies diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) may have impairments in key brain regions before birth, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
While more research is warranted, the findings shed light on the need to include routine screening of psychological distress as part of prenatal care for expecting mothers and as a way to protect a baby’s developing brain.
Researchers enrolled 140 women who were between 21 and 40 weeks pregnant. Forty-eight women had unborn fetuses who were diagnosed with CHD and 92 women were considered healthy with uncomplicated pregnancies. Using magnetic resonance imaging, they measured total brain volume as well as key regions of the brain.
Maternal stress and anxiety, mainly in the second trimester, were associated with smaller hippocampi (responsible for learning and memory) and cerebellums (responsible for motor coordination, social and behavioral development) in pregnancies affected by fetal CHD.
They also found that 65% of pregnant women expecting a baby with CHD tested positive for stress, while 27% of future moms with uncomplicated pregnancies tested positive as well. The study was funded by NHLBI.