1.0 Introduction
Children usually develop their cognitive, psychological, and emotional skills in early childhood, forming a basis for their lifelong health and well-being later. Therefore, it is essential to understand the risks associated with healthy development and evaluate factors that promote or protect it to help curb and reduce the long-term effects of early aversive conditions to increase child life prospects (King & King & King & Laplante, 2005). The developmental origins of health and disease theory suggest that when children are exposed to environmental stressors at a critical range during their early stages of life, they likely end up experiencing long-term adverse effects on their mental health and development at large. Therefore, the topic under research mainly majors and focuses on life span development (Hamada & Matthews, 2019). However, families can provide a robust supportive pillar to their children during their early growth stages. By doing that, they help counteract any possibilities of adverse effects and exposure that may arise during the whole period process. The parent-sibling relationship is crucial in providing clear guidelines that can help the child grow up properly. This report, therefore, outlines the different cognitive impacts of maternal stress on children’s development.
2.0 Why I Am Interested In this Research Question
I gained interest in this research topic because when such a topic is on exposure, there is a noticeable impact on the cognitive development and language of children who have been under the watch of their moderators and have attained at least two years since the pregnancy period. There have also been suggestions that there have been some small degrees of positive stress which has proved to be beneficial to children’s outcomes in terms of motor and cognitive development, as explained by Di Pietro. It is possible that the different products may have been affected in various ways, such as a child might suffer from anxiety and rapid physical development due to prenatal stress. Much still needs an understanding of the different types of stress and their effect on the unborn and developing fetus. Only a little piece of knowledge is available concerning the effects that are displayed as a result of work stress during the period of pregnancy. There is a need to know and understand more about the gestational ages of vulnerability for the different outcome results. Research gaps still need to be filled in the contributions and interactions between prenatal stress and genetic vulnerabilities of both the mother and the child. By filling these gaps, crucial information related to the cognitive and health developments of children can easily be put into use to help reduce the adverse effects that have been occurring. We also need to know more about to what extent, and at what times it is possible for sensitive postnatal care to counteract the effects of prenatal stress.
3.0 Effects of prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on foetal and child development
3.1 Cognitive Development
According to research studies, the development of the brain’s fetus can easily be influenced by pregnancy-specific stress is more likely than general stress as there are high stakes of that happening. Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez (2020) suggest that pregnancy-specific stress can affect executive function due to a reduction of the prefrontal cortex’s grey matter. As a result, the development of cognitive capacities can become modified. In addition, the mental development rate of infants was recorded to be so slow when measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development due to the high levels of cortisol recorded in the amniotic fluid. Moreover, the higher cortisol levels found present when measured in the maternal saliva were related to low cognitive development at four years. Studies have shown that the relationship between maternal stress and long-term cognitive development during pregnancy might result in excessive amounts of cortisol levels in the foetal brain. This will damage the myelin sheaths in the central nervous system, leading to low cognitive health-related development problems during the adolescent stages (Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez, 2020). Specifically, this relation was more substantial when the mother experienced higher stress levels between 12–22 weeks of pregnancy, but not after that period. It was also evident that girls are more likely to tend to undergo side effects from their mother’s stress, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy (Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez, 2020). This looks like a reality that happens since the pregnancy period is likely to be vulnerable to stress actions over the brain’s fetus. Nevertheless, other authors and researchers have argued that during the pregnancy period, both general and pregnancy-specific stress should not cause or bring adverse effects at any chance since they can serve as a tool that could accelerate the cognitive development process.
3.2 Decreased Intellectual and Verbal Performance
Research studies conducted with non-human primates show that maternal stress leads to convincing behavioral changes to investigate and internalize (King & Laplante 2009). According to the investigation, research studies by King and Laplante discovered that pregnant mothers with stress were linked to decreased verbal and intellectual performance at two years. Mothers subjected to snowstorms during their first or second tri-semester resulted in their babies suffering from significantly less severe or moderate physical stress, reducing the Bayley mental disorder index values. The intensity of pressure had no impact on the mental disorder index values for the period when the fetus was exposed during the pregnancy period, especially the third tri-semester was linked to decreased verbal and intellectual performance at two years. Babies whose mothers got subjected to snowstorms within the first or second trimesters and encountered severe or moderate physical stress had reduced Bayley mental disorder index values. Stress intensity did not impact mental disorder index values for exposure of children during the third pregnancy trimester. Empirical ice storm stress had a substantial effect on verbal intelligence, with no difference depending on exposure date.
Similar effects have been recorded during naturalistic studies based on the behavior. The studies involving prenatal maternal anxiety and exposure to life with more stressed based events and prenatal exposure to dexamethasone show that children end up as most victims. Usually, they are either depressed, anxious, or likely to be stressed (Stott, 1973). They often look withdrawn in most cases. Furthermore, different studies have examined and evaluated the association between independent stressors and the resulting mental health outcomes. In a classic study, the rate of mental illness in samples obtained from Finland was examined whereby the father had either passed on when the person was still intact in the uterus yet to be born or precisely one year after conception. They significantly found out that the victims incredibly had schizophrenia, among other mental illnesses (Huttunen & Niskanen, 1978). Other mental illnesses were also present in the prenatal stress exposure group that was subjected to the research. These studies show a specific effect of the timing of the stressor during the pregnancy, with the most harmful effects associated with exposure during the second trimester.
3.3 Reduced Neurological Ability
Numerous studies on categories of mammals in the collection of prosimians like lemurs and monkeys propose that offspring’s neuron operation is negatively impacted by situations and actions that are naturally social, which are linked to the body and physiological struggle during the gestation period. These social stressors include; decreased development and motor activities, insufficient balance, dragged time in reacting, and reduced tone and synchronization in muscles (King & Laplante, 2005). When pregnant mothers in the middle of their pregnancy have gone through adverse periods in life, a score of four to fourteen days is observed to be less significant in humans, according to the inventory of Prechtl Neurological.
3.4 Greater Distractibility, Deferred, Object Permanence, and Poorer Attention
Non–human primates’ studies have revealed that at two weeks, administration of the hormone adrenocorticotrophic and chronic recurring stress during pregnancy both indicate inadequate attention, extreme distractibility, and lasting object delay during gestation, also an early indication of how children think and explore things. Relevant reports have been produced particularly in human beings through individual mother expressions of their stress levels, nervousness, and restlessness. Stress levels and anxiety lead to high chances of hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit, affecting millions of children. Continuous and prolonged research on the focus of fear of impregnated mothers and the consequences on their babies in Zhu et al. (2014). A longitudinal study explains that extreme anxiety levels undergone by pregnant mothers in the early days of pregnancy bring more extreme attention to challenges in children of eighteen to thirty-two months despite regulating a carrier of unknown variables. A different study discovered that at the age of nine, children born from mothers of high anxiety during their pregnancy possess great deficit attention compared to children born from mothers of low pressure (Mulder et al., 2002).
3.5 Negative Impacts On Memory And Learning Abilities
Learning and learning abilities are negatively affected by maternal stress. A mutual relationship between memory alteration, power to learn, and maternal stress was discussed due to the negative impact of increased cortisol levels on fetal hippocampus, which reduces neuronal density and neuron formation (Richetto & Riva, 2014). The research outlined that when the foetus is longley exposed to extreme levels of glucocorticoids, particularly at twenty-eight weeks of pregnancy, that could be linked to future problems in learning due to unsuitable development of the hippocampus resulting from excess cortisol (Richetto & Riva, 2014). Two to five years is when the learning challenges will be indicated. As described by scholars, the alteration of memory could cause serious consequences, especially for ladies, as compared to gents whose ability to read and solve mathematical questions is improved (Hamada & Matthews, 2019). The relationship between visuospatial memory and stress studies concludes that girls and boys are potential victims of visuospatial memory.
3.6 Effects On Children’s Behaviour
Anatomic and modification functioning connected to alteration in actions, conduct future disorder and developed state of anxious states nearly at adolescence stage can be caused by acute stress. Some research expressed levels of stress during work in comparison with alterations in behavior (Amici et al. (2022). The outcomes reveal that pregnancy stress clearly reflected childhood behavior issues. This research represents that children in old age had a promoter function by reducing the chances of children being exposed to external challenges.
The impact of stress on actions will result from the period of pregnancy, fetal, and intensity. Every study explains various answers in conjunction with the highly affected time of pregnancy. However, other research declares that it should come at the early stage; centrally, other studies state that alteration will increase during the last 28 weeks of pregnancy (Werner et al., 2012). Differences in specific sex were noticeable, revealing that hyperactivity and emotional challenges mainly affect gents while female-only suffers emotional challenges.
In addition, other scholars state that the negative impact of maternal stress can be mitigated through stroking the mother in the nine months of life, with girls suffering negatively. Skin-to-skin contact and baby breastfeeding are fundamental to bonding between mother and child. Furthermore, the stress of maternal, which occurs during the gestation period, could be linked to problems in making a mother-to-son bond. This negatively impacts children’s hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPAA) due to alteration in the impact of accumulation during development.
4.0 Conclusion
In the preceding essay, it is clear that children’s cognitive development, health, and well-being can be influenced when subjected to adverse aversive conditions. The more unfortunate fact is when they suffer from such effects that have stretched deep from their parents, especially mothers. Parents must make the best outcomes when facing mental health issues which in turn can lead to conditions that tend to be dangerous if not controlled since we ve seen that the shortcomings can be turned into a strength relating positions to change things for the better. All these, however, do not entirely answer the gaps present in most of the research done under the cognitive basis to ensure that clearer understanding has been arrived at and hence poses a challenge to solve the unfinished work left or instead not completed. Having now completed my paper as well as having an insight understanding of the course itself, the most striking thing I discovered is that the issues arising due to psychological states, such as stress and anxiety, can quickly be dealt with by finding alternative solutions which begin from the perspective ground which is the brain, how to get things done and how to do them rather than avoiding off or eliminating them. I see myself using this work to provide more reasons for conducting research and carrying out evaluations on the topic of study.
References
Hamada, H., & Matthews, S. G. (2019, March 31). Prenatal programming of stress responsiveness and behaviors: Progress and perspectives. Journal of neuroendocrinology. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30582647/
Huttunen, M. O., & Niskanen, P. (1978, April). Prenatal loss of father and psychiatric disorders. Archives of general psychiatry. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/727894/
King, S., & Laplante, D. P. (2005, March). The effects of prenatal maternal stress on children’s cognitive … Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10253890500108391
Matas-Blanco, C., & Caparros-Gonzalez, R. A. (2020, October 16). Influence of maternal stress during pregnancy on child’s Neurodevelopment. MDPI. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8611/2/4/16
Mulder, E. J. H., Robles de Medina, P. G., Huizink, A. C., Van den Bergh, B. R. H., Buitelaar, J. K., & Visser, G. H. A. (2002). Prenatal maternal stress: Effects on pregnancy and the (unborn) child. Early Human Development, 70(1-2), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-3782(02)00075-0
Richetto, J., & Riva, M. A. (2014, April 12). Prenatal maternal factors in the development of cognitive impairments in the offspring. Journal of reproductive immunology. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24794049/
Stott, D. H. (1973). A follow-up study from the birth of the effects of prenatal stresses. Developmental medicine and child neurology. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4129091/
Werner, E., Zhao, Y., Evans, L., Kinsella, M., Kurzius, L., Altincatal, A., McDonough, L., & Monk, C. (2012, July 6). Distinct neural mechanisms of individual and developmental differences … Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/dev.21126
write