Stressed in third tri

[SamanthaH92]

Just wondering how bad stress is for the baby? I'm 38+2 weeks pregnant. Been seriously stressed out the past two days. I had my blood pressure checked yesterday and that was fine but I'm a lot more stressed out now than i was then. Can it make labour come on?

There’s very little evidence that mental stress is bad for the baby (there’s a lot of speculative rubbish written about cortisol but very little decent science.)

Physical stress right at the end can increase chances of labour - for example heat stress, high BP etc. Premature labour rates go up in very hot weather.
Normal levels of anxiety (ie mental stress even fairly severe) are less clear cut.

Probably not, is the answer.

Thank you. I've managed to relax a bit tonight but I'm sure the stress will return again tomorrow. Was just worried it may have some effect x