Stress in pregnancy decreases junior’s life expectancy

Every women wants things to go right during pregnancy, but stuff happens. Love ones get sick, accidents occur, jobs are lost etc.

Nightmares during pregnancy leave their mark

Women who experience psychosocial stress during pregnancy, pass a little of that trauma onto the baby developing in their womb.

Multiple studies have shown that children born to traumatized Moms, live with the legacy of that upset. The ordeal can cause malfunctioning of their

metabolism,
immune system and
cognitive function

Researchers from the University of California have found that intrauterine trauma, causes babies to age before their time.

The cell clock speeds up

The age of the cells in your body is not always reflective of the number of birthday’s you’ve enjoyed.

Cell age is determined by the length of the special region at the end of your DNA, known as the telomere. The telomere helps to keep the chromosome stable, when the genetic material is copied during cell division. Each cell division, shortens the telomere fractionally. Once the full length of the telomere has been used up – that is it, the cell can no longer divide.

The length of the telomere determines how many times a cell can divide. The longer the telomere region, the more cell division rounds that cell can experience. The more rounds programmed into the DNA, translates to the cell being around for longer.

Prenatal stress ages the fetal cells

Researchers looked at the “age” of white blood cells in two groups of healthy 25 year olds.

The first group had developed during trying times, as their mother’s had endured some kind of psychosocial stress whilst carrying them. The second group had developed in an uneventful pregnancy.

The white blood cells of those with a troubled start, were a couple of years older than the “normals”. The aging effect was more noticeable in women than men.

The nine month tummy ride

What happens during the first nine months on the inside, has a big impact on the years outside.

If your mother experienced some kind of trauma during your development, your telomeres have most likely been cut short.

If you can, give her a BIG hug anyway, she did her best. Blaming her for your health hang ups is not going to benefit anyone. If you’ve lost a few years already, make sure you don’t lose any more – dial down stress, particularly oxidative stress, to preserve your telomeres.

Finally, always treat all Mom’s to be with kit gloves, the cargo they’re carrying is fragile.

UCI-led study links prenatal exposure to stress with accelerated cell aging –press release from University of California – Irvine released on EurekAlert.

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