The impact of anxiety on pregnancy

Perinatal anxiety has been shown to be associated with preterm delivery, which is the birth of an infant at a gestational period of less than 37 weeks. This, in turn, is linked to increased sickness in babies as well as infant mortality.

Studies have shown that the presence of maternal anxiety negatively affects the way the foetal nervous system develops. This occurs via altered functioning of the mother’s hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, which controls most endocrine functions. The result can be impaired cognitive, motor and behavioural development in the child.

Perinatal anxiety is also associated with negative effects on children’s emotional development, temperament and behavioural reactivity to new situations; they can have delayed muscular and learning skills, hyperactivity and poor attention spans, childhood anxiety, and behavioural aberrations.