Maternal psychological distress and placental circulation in pregnancies after a previous offspring with congenital malformation.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Antenatal maternal psychological distress may be associated with reduced placental circulation, which could lead to lower birthweight. Studies investigating this in humans show mixed results, which may be partially due to type, strength and timing of distress. In addition, the arterial vascular resistance measures often used as outcome measures do not detect smaller changes in placental volume blood flow. We aimed to investigate the effect of a specific stressor, with increased levels of stress early in pregnancy, on the fetoplacental volume blood flow in third trimester.

Methods

This was a prospective observational study of 74 pregnant women with a congenital malformation in a previous fetus or child. Psychological distress was assessed twice, around 16 and 30

SUBMITTER: Helbig A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3903559 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature