Children born to women who experience pregnancy stress may grow up with less body coordination or slower motor skills. This is according to a study published in a detailed journal on Child development.
According to West Australian research, stress during the time of pregnancy may cause poor motor skills to their babies. In the research almost 3000 mothers were asked to list most of its stressful moments during the pregnancy period in the span of 18 and 34 weeks. Their children, then underwent a couple of coordination tests. The age bracket of the children included in the research are 10, 14 and 17.
Researchers from the Telethon Kids institute and the University of Notre Dame Australia examined the data from the almost 3000 pregnant women. During the 18th week of the participants, they were asked a series of question about the stress or traumatic experience they felt during pregnancy. The same series of question were asked during the 34th week as the team assessed the motor skills of the children. They used a ten item test for movement to measure the strength of the arm of the children and also test the ability in their sense of touch using a finger, to walk along the line in their toes, jump a distance and stand in one foot. And many other series of test for their motor skills.
The journal states that the more stressful events the mother experienced makes their children performed at every age tested. However the New York Hospital Head of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, said that not to read too much about the findings because the series of skills tested may not really affect or necessary in life. Adesman, also stated that it would be more interesting to know about whether the stress was related to coordination problems like riding a bicycle.
The study was published last Oct. 14.
