Sex-specific association of high maternal psychological stress during pregnancy on newborn birthweight.

ABSTRACT: Birthweight is an important predictor of newborn health and has been linked to maternal psychological stress during pregnancy. However, it is unclear whether prenatal stress affects birthweight similarly for both male and female infants. We used a well-established pregnancy cohort to investigate the impact of high maternal psychological stress during pregnancy on birthweight as a function of infant sex. Overall, 5702 mother-newborn pairs were analysed. Of these, 198 mothers reported high levels of stress using the Psychological Stress Measure (nine-items version; PSM-9). Maternal psychological stress was assessed between the 24th and 28th week of gestation and analyses were performed jointly and independently as a function of neonatal sex (separate analyses for male and female infants). Ne

SUBMITTER: Bernard N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8775189 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature