Is this hurting the baby??

Kristi85

My job at times can get soooooo stressful and today is definately one of those days.  How exactly does stress affect/effect (not sure which one it is) the baby??  Should I be worried?

 TIA

MrsDink

It's affect.

There was a really good article about this in Time Magazine last month.  They have done numerous studies showing that the amount of stress a mother has during pregnancy directly affects the baby, even while in the womb. 

Now you shouldn't freak thinking you are harming your baby, but realize that this is a very critical time in your baby's life where it is solely thriving off of you.  Any stress you deal with your baby has to deal with as well.

I think you should consider finding an outlet for the stress you can't avoid at work.  Maybe you should try to take time during your lunch break, or after work for a walk to clear your mind, or maybe joining a Yoga class to calm you down. 

Either way, deep, slow breaths will slow your heart rate and calm you down in a pinch.

catngar77

MrsDink:

It's affect.

There was a really good article about this in Time Magazine last month.  They have done numerous studies showing that the amount of stress a mother has during pregnancy directly affects the baby, even while in the womb. 

Now you shouldn't freak thinking you are harming your baby, but realize that this is a very critical time in your baby's life where it is solely thriving off of you.  Any stress you deal with your baby has to deal with as well.

I think you should consider finding an outlet for the stress you can't avoid at work.  Maybe you should try to take time during your lunch break, or after work for a walk to clear your mind, or maybe joining a Yoga class to calm you down. 

Either way, deep, slow breaths will slow your heart rate and calm you down in a pinch.

I read the same article but when they were talking about stress they referred to war and poverty.  People under "extreme" stress.  It said it was correlated with schizophrenia later in life.

I was told stress does not effect your baby.  Just think, how many of us are NOT stressed!

atlb

catngar77:

MrsDink:

It's affect.

There was a really good article about this in Time Magazine last month.  They have done numerous studies showing that the amount of stress a mother has during pregnancy directly affects the baby, even while in the womb. 

Now you shouldn't freak thinking you are harming your baby, but realize that this is a very critical time in your baby's life where it is solely thriving off of you.  Any stress you deal with your baby has to deal with as well.

I think you should consider finding an outlet for the stress you can't avoid at work.  Maybe you should try to take time during your lunch break, or after work for a walk to clear your mind, or maybe joining a Yoga class to calm you down. 

Either way, deep, slow breaths will slow your heart rate and calm you down in a pinch.

I read the same article but when they were talking about stress they referred to war and poverty.  People under "extreme" stress.  It said it was correlated with schizophrenia later in life.

I was told stress does not effect your baby.  Just think, how many of us are NOT stressed!

That's not completely true either. Normal, everyday stress is generally not a big deal. However, stress directly affects blood pressure, which can potentially do serious harm to a developing fetus, if it gets high enough.

iris427

I think people play up the stress in pregnancy thing too much.  I mean if you are living in dire poverty or a warzone, yes that level of stress could be harmful.

But the day to day stresses of work, family, etc.?  I don't think you need to worry about that hurting the baby.  Everyone deals with stress and if it were harmful to babies, the human species would not have made it this far.  I'm sure cavewomen were pretty stressed out--will Ugg catch a mammoth today?  What will we eat otherwise?  

Now if your stress is reaching levels where you are having a hard time functioning, enjoying life, etc. then I think you need to talk to someone about it--not because I think it will hurt the baby but so you can be happy.

Kristi85

Okay, thanks ladies! 

Temp38995750004016

I have an office job, so no manual heavy work or anything. My doctor told me to really manage my stress levels because stress was probably  making my m/s worse.

My m/s was pretty extreme, I was home from work off and on for 3 weeks under dr orders.

tokenhoser

The biggest thing is to take care of yourself: eat well, sleep as much as you can, exercise. Deal with the stress, and don't stress about stressing. No one has a magic stress-free bubble to live in for 9 months - normal stress won't hurt anything.

I think it is most likely to become problematic when there is no escape, like stress over being safe/secure.

bride2be.austin

the baby feels what you feel...