Early human development
-
Early human development · Nov 2003
Prenatal maternal cortisol levels and infant behavior during the first 5 months.
Research on both animals and humans is providing more and more evidence that prenatal factors can have long-term effects on development. Most human studies have examined the effects of prenatal stress on birth outcome (i.e. shorter pregnancies, smaller infants). The few studies that have looked at the infants' later development have found prenatal stress to be related to more difficult temperament, behavioral/emotional problems and poorer motor/cognitive development. In this paper, we have examined links between late pregnancy cortisol levels and infant behavior during the first 5 months of life. ⋯ The infants were divided into two groups based on their mothers' late pregnancy cortisol values: high and low prenatal cortisol groups. A trend was found for the high cortisol infants to be delivered earlier than the low cortisol group. Furthermore, the behavioral observations showed the higher prenatal cortisol group to display more crying, fussing and negative facial expressions. Supporting these findings, maternal reports on temperament also showed these infants to have more difficult behavior: they had higher scores on emotion and activity. The differences between the infants were strongest at the youngest ages (weeks 1-7).