Today’s guest post is by Dr. Jordan Adams, part of a chiropractor team with her husband (and sometime their toddler) at Calibration Chiropractic, their family practice in Mansfield, TX. She is Webster Certified and a yoga teacher of almost 10 years (with additional training in prenatal yoga).
Chronic stress in pregnancy has a long term impact on the child.
The journey leading up to and through pregnancy is a transformational period in life, and while it certainly has many joys and excitements, for many individuals it also carries its fair share of stress and anxiety.
For those who have gone through fertility challenges and IVF treatments…
For those who weren’t planning to get pregnant and found themselves pregnant without preparation…
For those who worry about how to provide for their child when the child arrives…
For those who lacks adequate social support…
For those who are scared of the birth process…
For those who are on their second, third, fourth (+) child and are overwhelmed and drained
Stressful situations show up in many different ways.
Many women find themselves in at least one, if not more, of these situations, and society isn’t set up in a way to best help protect them from stress or empower them to do something about it. The sad reality is, society tends to play to the stress and anxiety with stories of all that can go wrong and everything you have to do to get things right, have the perfect birth, and be a good parent.
Most of us know that long standing, chronic stress can have negative effects on our own health, and many are aware of the negative impact stress has on birth, but the problem goes even deeper during pregnancy. The problem of longstanding, chronic stress during this stage of life is that it doesn’t start and end with just those who are pregnant. Research is now discovering that it can have a longstanding impact on the developing fetus well into adolescence and adulthood – it’s called the Fetal Programming Theory.
What research is finding is that environmental exposures in the womb, including chronic exposure to maternal stress hormones, can and do impact fetal brain development, and this has an impact on not only future health, but also future behavior.
Because this is such an important issue, and it’s something that is so common in our society, we need to explore what the implications of chronic maternal stress and anxiety are on the baby, how this happens, and what we can do about it.
Implications of Chronic Prenatal Stress on Birth
● Increased risk of miscarriage
● Low Birth Weight
● Higher risk of birth interventions
● Preterm birth
Implications of Chronic Prenatal Stress on Childhood Development
● Infant restlessness and fussiness
● Impaired cognitive development
● Hyperactivity
● Increased fear response
● Endocrine disorders
HOW THIS HAPPENS
When we experience stress or become anxious, the stress response of the body is activated. There can be some benefit to occasional stress of short duration, but the problem is that stress and anxiety today are chronic for many people, meaning that the primary stress hormones corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH), epinephrine, and cortisol never really get a chance to leave the bloodstream.
CRH plays a role in regulating the duration of pregnancy and fetal maturation, meaning that high levels of CRH can be a risk factor of early labor and preterm birth.
Additionally, high antenatal and maternal anxiety levels lead to high amounts of cortisol in the mother’s bloodstream, and fetal exposure to excess cortisol, particularly during weeks 12-24, has been correlated to ADHD symptoms in childhood. High levels of cortisol later on in pregnancy has been linked to symptoms of irritability and sleeplessness in the infant and general restlessness in children.
The nervous system of the fetus becomes a mirror of its experience in utero. Dis-regulation of the stress response in the mother creates a dis-regulation in the child’s system.
WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
While we certainly can’t always control stressful situations in life, we can take measures to protect ourselves and help us enter more of a responsive, proactive state rather an a reactive state. In order to do this it is critical that we learn how to regulate the activation of our stress response.
Some things that help with this include:
● Mindfulness
● Yoga
● Journaling
● Walking
● Eating Healthy
● Positive Self-Talk
● Establishing Boundaries
● Community Support
● Chiropractic Care
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
The spine is responsible for much more than structural support. The spine serves a gateway that allows for proper communication between the brain and the rest of the body, as well as appropriate response to environmental stimulation.
Misalignments in the spine ultimately lead to abnormal sensory input (incorrect information) being sent to the brain. A disruption in proper feedback and sensory input to the brain contributes to nervous system imbalance.
A chiropractic adjustment addresses areas of spinal misalignment, which encourages the body to activate more of the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest response) rather than the sympathetic nervous system (the stress response). This helps the body naturally respond and adapt better to the various stressors we face – including emotional, chemical, and physical stressors.
Chiropractic care is important during pregnancy, not only for it’s physical benefits of more comfort and a more efficient labor, but also for the way it helps naturally encourage a decrease in the stress response of the mother, which then helps protect the health and development of the child.
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Dr. Jordan Adams is passionate about empowering moms before, during, and after birth. She works alongside her husband (and sometime their toddler) at Calibration Chiropractic, their family practice in Mansfield, TX. She is Webster Certified and a yoga teacher of almost 10 years (with additional training in prenatal yoga). She recently created a Youtube video platform for prenatal yoga in order to make this type of class more readily accessible. Additionally, she has over 100 hours of post-graduate training in pediatric chiropractic care.
You can connect with Dr. Jordan through Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
You can read more about Chiropractic care in pregnancy, how depression and anxiety can effect your pregnancy or discover how functional medicine can impact your childbearing years in an amazing way.
