Developmental implications of maternal antenatal anxiety mechanisms and approaches to intervention

Louise Newman,Fiona Judd,Angela Komiti

doi:10.1080/20017022.2017.1309879

Louise Newman, Fiona Judd + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/20017022.2017.1309879

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Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper aims is to examine the neurodevelopmental and psychosocial outcomes of infants born to mothers with antenatal anxiety and determine whether perinatal interventions can mitigate the negative effects of maternal anxiety.

Highlights

Maternal antenatal anxiety involves a spectrum of experiences including transient mood disturbance, mood change in response to a defined stress or multiple cumulative stressors, personality-based or trait anxiety, and clinical diagnoses of anxiety disorder
Whilst the impact of prenatal maternal anxiety on foetal development does not occur in every case it is estimated that the attributable load of behavioural/emotional problems in the population due to maternal prenatal anxiety is 10–15% (Glover, 2015)
(2) Preterm Birth (PTB): Antenatal maternal anxiety is associated with increased rates of spontaneous preterm births (Dancause et al, 2011; Glynn, Wadhwa, DunkelSchetter, Chicz-Demet, & Sandman, 2001; Pavlov, Steiner, Kessous, Weintraub, & Sheiner, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Maternal antenatal anxiety involves a spectrum of experiences including transient mood disturbance, mood change in response to a defined stress or multiple cumulative stressors, personality-based or trait anxiety, and clinical diagnoses of anxiety disorder. An MRI study of children enrolled in a prospective longitudinal birth cohort in Singapore (Qiu et al, 2013) showed that infants of mothers who had experienced antenatal anxiety had slower growth of both the right and left hippocampus during the first 6 months of life In another MRI study of children aged 6–9 years old, maternal antenatal anxiety was associated with grey matter volume reductions in the prefrontal cortex, the premotor cortex, medial temporal lobe, lateral temporal cortex, the post central gyrus, and cerebellum (Buss, Davis, Muftuler, Head, & Sandman, 2010). While it is not yet clear what the outcomes of these brain changes are for daily activities and abilities of affected children, these brain abnormalities indicate that maternal anxiety can have a significant adverse impact on brain development

How does antenatal maternal anxiety affect developmental outcomes?

Findings

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