Guest guest Posted July 6, 2001 Report Share Posted July 6, 2001 In a message dated 7/7/01 4:02:18 AM W. Australia Standard Time, writes: > so where is the real evidence of stress linked to low birth weight > > I don't have the reference to hand, but the research that Vivette Glover was talking about was done by a team led by a Professor Lou in Denmark, studying 2, 382 women. They looked at the 70 most stressed and compared with 50 women who were not stressed. The study found that stress was associated with low birthweight, low head circumference and low neonatal neurological score. She mentions that it was a well controlled study, and also controlled for smoking. Like all research - it is impossible to prove anything conclusively (even that smoking causes lung cancer). But by looking at methodologies, and statistics (and importantly the reliability of those statistics), you can get an indication of possible factors that may be linked. But generally there is quite a large volume of research that would seem to indicate (no more than that) that maternal stress can be linked to effects on the baby. Some other research she mentions, seems to indicate that low level but constant stress e.g. being on a poor income, or living in poor conditions, may be more of a problem than an acute case of stress e.g. bereavement. Debbie Slater Perth, WA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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