Journal Article

Maternal Psychosocial Stress during Pregnancy and Placenta Weight: Evidence from a National Cohort Study

Greene, Naomi, Tegethoff, Marion, Olsen, Jørn, Meinlschmidt, Gunther, Meyer, Andrea H.

2010

Overview

To study in a large-scale cohort with prospective data the associations between psychosocial stress during pregnancy and placenta weight at birth. Animal data suggest that the placenta is involved in stress-related fetal programming. We defined a priori two types of psychosocial stress during pregnancy, life stress (perceived burdens in major areas of life) and emotional symptoms (e.g. anxiety). We estimated the associations of maternal stress during pregnancy with placenta weight at birth, controlled for length of gestation, by predicting gestational age- and sex-specific z-scores of placenta weight through multiple regression analysis, adjusted for potential confounders (N = 78,017 singleton pregnancies). Life stress (per increase in stress score by 1, range: 0-18) during pregnancy was associated with increased placenta weight at birth (z-score, reported in 10(-3); B, 14.33; CI, 10.12-18.54). In contrast, emotional symptoms during pregnancy were not associated with placenta weight at birth. Maternal life stress but not emotional symptoms during pregnancy was associated with increased placenta weight at birth; yet, the association-estimate was rather small. Our results may contribute to a better understanding of the role of the placenta in the regulation of intrauterine processes in response to maternal stress.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Age / Anxiety / Birth / Birth Weight / Calibration / Childbirth & labor / Clinical psychology / Cohort analysis / Cohort Studies / Denmark / Emotions / Epidemiology / Female / Fetal Development - physiology / Fetuses / Gestation / Gestational age / Humans / Maternal Exposure / Mediation / Multiple regression analysis / Neuroscience/Behavioral Neuroscience / Neuroscience/Psychology / Organ Size / Pediatrics and Child Health/Child Abuse / Pediatrics and Child Health/Child Development / Pediatrics and Child Health/Neonatology / Placenta / Placenta - pathology / Predictive control / Pregnancy / Pregnancy Complications / Pregnancy Outcome / Pregnant women / Premature birth / Psychological aspects / Psychotherapy / Public health / Public Health and Epidemiology/Epidemiology / Regression Analysis / Social interactions / Stress / Stress (Psychology) / Stress, Psychological - psychology / Stresses / Uterus - physiopathology / Women's Health / Womens health