AP12388

Science Summary: Prental Stress Can Increase Risk Of Overweight In Adulthood

This article explains a study done on 119,908 young Danish men in which some of the ones who were overweight based on their BMI, mothers had experienced a close relative passing just before, or during the pregnancy (Aarhus University). They concluded that the close deaths increased the mothers stress levels during pregnancy, which increases the chance of the child being overweight between ages 10 and 13 years (PhD Lena Hohwu, Aarhus University). According to Barrett’s laws correlation is not causation, so the evidence from the study does not mean for certain that stress in the mother has a direct relation with child obesity. However, our textbook has two pages on maternal emotions, describing how emotions affect prenatal development. According to the text stress is associated with quantitative and qualitative differences in hormones and other chemicals that possibly affect the fetus (Lifespan Development pg. 70-71). The textbook relates stress with a slower growth of fetuses than healthy mothers, but, has no mention of obesity in the child’s later years being related to stress in the mother. I assume that if more studies are done on child obesity being related prenatal stress, and it’s proven to have a direct relation, than it will be included in later versions of this book.

References: Aarhus University. "Prental stress can increase risk of overweight in adulthood." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 June 2014. .

Boyd, Denise, and Helen Bee. "Chapter 3 Prenatal Development and Birth." //Lifespan Development//. Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2012. . Print.

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