Stress harm my unborn baby?

[streass]

I’ve been stressed throughout pregnancy. On another level. I’m scaring myself reading what may have happened to them. Has anyone been stressed in pregnancy - excessively so, emotionally upset etc - and things been ok?

Honestly don’t add to your stress by worrying about this. Babies are much tougher than they tell you.

Mine was stressful on and off but my DD was 110% perfect and still is, no issues, reaching milestones early etc. Try not to stress xxx

Yes, I was massively stressed in my second pregnancy, my dd was born and is now 10, and is just as fine as her older sibling who was born after a not particularly stressful pregnancy.
I have heard of studies of babies who are born following huge disasters etc and extended periods of raised cortisol during pregnancy. There were no clear correlations between that and development problems, most of the effects seemed to be felt by mum. I hope you manage to find peace for your birth. 💐

Bit of a far fetched example, but there are women captured for ISIS brides, who are raped and still manage to give birth to a healthy baby. Sorry it's a bit depressing. But i can imagine living in them conditions, no-one is more stressed than them. Living under the constant threat of conflict.

Thank you, my main concern was behavioural/mental distress they may have experienced. I have literally never had a worse time in my life, I feel so guilty.

I had periods of very high stress and baby is completely fine and developing very well, he’s a very happy and content little boy.

My stress was mostly work and education related, I stopped working a month before my due date to really allow me to wind down and de-stress before the birth and I found this beneficial though only possible because of my specific circumstance.

I would say though that if your situation is still stressful a baby will only add to this. If you can make changes so so as soon as possible to make life better in the future.

Telling women that stress is harmful is so incredibly unhelpful.

I lost my.job and then my mother while pregnant. It was awful.

Dd is perfect.

There is research about stress impacting on babies pre birth but it tends to be where it has a lasting impact is when a baby doesn’t have their needs met when they are born and the pattern continues so imagine a very stressed mum during pregnancy then a baby who isn’t responded to when they cry and no one helps them to calm down and regulate emotions and over time you then get the long term impact.
Whst I’m trying to say is that stress in pregnancy alone doesn’t have lasting impacts and a lot of the research is focused on the extreme levels of stress where mothers are in fear of their lives etc

I had high anxiety in pregnancy, which would probably have just been anxiety had nearly every antenatal health professional I saw not told me I was harming my baby by being anxious.

If they'd told me that one in ten women suffers anxiety in pregnancy, that it can be hormonal, that what matters is a loving home environment once the baby is born and that there are techniques to help manage anxiety, well, it might have been greatly reduced.

But making mothers feel bad is an ancient pastime and still quite embedded in society.

My baby was fine and is now a very happy, healthy eleven year old.

I’ll also add that I had two very stressful pregnancies and two babies with very different temperaments so I could see no pattern

And yes, as pp above said about the research.
What matters is that your baby has a loving, secure home environment and, of course, you matter too. I hope you feel better soon.

People have children in a war zone. Babies were born in concentration camps. Stress isn’t going to harm your unborn child.