Maternal stress and psychiatric and obstetric offspring outcomes

Background: Most societies believe that a mother's psychological state can influence her unbom baby. Stressful events during pregnancy have been consistently associaiea wim mi elevated risk of low birthweight, prematurity and schizophrenia. Such events during the first trimester have also been associated with risk of congenital malformations Objectives: To investigate the association between maternal exposure to severe life events and risk prematurity, reduced infant birthweight and schizophrenia in the offspring. The project focuses on timing of the exposure in relation to pregnancy. Conclusions: Mothers who were exposed to severe adverse life events antenatally have babies with significantly lower birthweight and more likely to be premature. Babies who were exposed to severe life events in the first trimester are more likely to nave schizophrenia later in their life.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo