Early human development
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Early human development · Aug 2013
Parental psychological distress during pregnancy and childhood cardiovascular development. The Generation R Study.
Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy might lead to higher fetal cortisol exposure, which subsequently leads to fetal cardiovascular developmental adaptations and cardiovascular dysfunction in later life. ⋯ Our results do not support the hypothesis that maternal psychological distress affects cardiovascular development in early life. Similar associations of maternal and paternal psychological distress with left ventricular mass suggest that these associations could be due to unmeasured social and environmental factors, rather than direct intra-uterine effects.