Women More Susceptible to Stress
In Early Pregnancy

A Healthnotes Newswire Brief

By Jeremy Appleton, ND

Healthnotes Newswire (April 5, 2001)—Stressful events, such as living through a major earthquake, have a more dramatic effect on pregnant women early in pregnancy, compared with women in later stages of pregnancy, according to a report published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.1

Forty pregnant women who had lived through a 1994 California earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter scale were enrolled in a study to determine whether the timing of the earthquake relative to the stage of pregnancy was related to the quality of emotional response to this stressful event.

Researchers from the University of California at Irvine, led by Dr. Laura M. Glynn, found that the earthquake created more stress among those women in early pregnancy compared with those in late pregnancy. The women who experienced the stressful event in early pregnancy also had shorter pregnancies than those who experienced the stress later in pregnancy.

The authors of the study concluded that as pregnancy progresses, women become less vulnerable to the effects of stress.

References:

1. Glynn LM, Wadhwa PD, Dunkel-Schetter C, et al. When stress happens matters: Effects of earthquake timing on stress responsivity in pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2001;184:637–42.

Jeremy Appleton, ND, is a licensed naturopathic physician, writer, and educator in the field of evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine. Dr. Appleton is Chair of Nutrition at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine and Senior Science Editor at Healthnotes.

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