Pregnancy Cautions: Caffeine, Stress, & Depression.

While a child is developing in the womb major imprints are made on the developing nervous system that may affect brain health, growth, obesity, and future cardiovascular risk. If children are to maximize their genetic potential then good parenting during pregnancy is a must.

The British Medical Journal has just published a detailed caffeine intake study on 2645 low-risk pregnant women and found that caffeine in any amount lowers birth weight. The larger the amount pregnant women consumed, the greater the problem. Even 1 cup of coffee, 100 mg of caffeine, is not without risks.

The problem is likely to be worse if you are stressed, tired, or depressed and living on caffeine to keep your energy going.

A new animal study has detailed that stress does indeed disturb nerves of the fetus during development, causing "slower development, learning and attention difficulties, anxiety and depressive symptoms." The author believed such stress may even increase the risk for autism.

Another study evaluating depression in 791 pregnant women found that depression significantly increased the risk for preterm delivery. Moderate depression increased the risk 40% and severe depression doubled the risk.

This information is sure to be used by the medical profession to hand out more antidepressants during pregnancy even though antidepressants reduce the flow of blood to the placenta, cause birth defects, and themselves cause preterm delivery.

I've also recently reported how these pregnancy problems can lead to sleep issues and drug abuse later in life, along with elevated cardiovascular disease risk.

The only healthy solution for pregnant mothers is life skills for stress management and nutrition that helps keep up with the extra wear and tear of being pregnant. It is certainly a good idea for family members to help a pregnant mother stabilize her life in any way they can, after all it is the health of the unborn child that really matters here. I have given extensive pregnancy supplement tips on my health topic page for Prenatal Nutrition.