Programming Effects of Prenatal Stress on Neurodevelopment—The Pitfall of Introducing a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

There is increasing interest for the potential harmful effects of prenatal stress on the developing fetal brain, both in scientific literature and in public press. Results from animal studies suggest that gestational stress leads to an altered offspring neurodevelopment with adverse behavioral and cognitive consequences. Furthermore, there are indications in human studies that severe prenatal stress has negative consequences for the child’s neurodevelopment. However, stress is an umbrella term and studies of maternal stress have focused on a wide range of stress inducing situations, ranging from daily hassles to traumatic stress after bereavement or a natural disaster. Mild to moderate stress, experienced by many women during their pregnancy, has not consistently been shown to exert substantial negative effects on the child’s neurodevelopment. Additionally, the vast majority of human studies are observational cohort studies that are hampered by their fundamental inability to show a causal relationship. Furthermore, our limited knowledge on the possible underlying mechanisms and the effects of interventions for prenatal stress on child neurodevelopmental outcomes emphasize our incomplete understanding of the actual effects of prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment. Until we have a better understanding, it seems counterproductive to alarm all pregnant women for possible harmful effects of all sorts of prenatal stress, if only to avoid the induction of stress itself.