Fernandes M, Stein A, Srinivasan K, Menezes G, Renton M, Zani J, Ramchandani P G
1 Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Women's Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
2 Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2014 Jun;5(3):178-82. doi: 10.1017/S2040174414000129.
Maternal stress during pregnancy has pervasive effects on stress responsivity in children. This study is the first to test the hypothesis that maternal prenatal depression, as observed in South India, may be associated with how foetuses respond to a potentially stressful stimulus. We employed measures of foetal heart rate at baseline, during exposure to a vibroacoustic stimulus, and post-stimulation, to study patterns of response and recovery in 133 third trimester foetuses of depressed and non-depressed mothers. We show that the association between maternal depression and foetal stress responsivity is U-shaped with foetuses of mothers with high and low depression scores demonstrating elevated responses, and poorer recovery, than foetuses of mothers with moderate levels. The right amount of intra-uterine stimulation is important in conditioning foetuses towards optimal regulation of their stress response. Our results imply that, in certain environmental contexts, exposure to moderate amounts of intra-uterine stress may facilitate this process.
孕期母亲压力对儿童的应激反应能力有广泛影响。本研究首次检验了这样一个假设：在印度南部观察到的母亲产前抑郁可能与胎儿对潜在应激刺激的反应方式有关。我们采用了在基线、暴露于振动声学刺激期间以及刺激后测量胎儿心率的方法，来研究133名处于孕晚期的抑郁母亲和非抑郁母亲的胎儿的反应和恢复模式。我们发现，母亲抑郁与胎儿应激反应能力之间的关联呈U形，抑郁得分高和低的母亲的胎儿比中度抑郁母亲的胎儿表现出更高的反应和更差的恢复。适量的子宫内刺激对于使胎儿适应其应激反应的最佳调节很重要。我们的结果表明，在某些环境背景下，暴露于适量的子宫内压力可能有助于这一过程。
