Nina In New York: Pregnant And Stressed? Don't Stress! Seriously, Stop It.
A lighthearted look at news, events, culture and everyday life in New York. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
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By Nina Pajak
There has long been a grand tradition in medical research of finding ways to tell women everything they're doing wrong to cause bad things to happen during their pregnancies. Physicians and scientists still have very little information when it comes to the causes of stillbirth and miscarriage, and anyone who has been pregnant in this country can attest to all of the intense, panicked, lawsuit-minded, assiduous guesswork involved in the care and feeding of gestating women. But what they do know for sure is that it's probably all our fault.
Well, here's a refreshing change! A new study out of UCLA shows that women who suffer from chronic stress during—and possibly even before—pregnancy are at a higher risk for having babies who suffer from low birth weight. See? What a relief!
Oh, wait. Never mind. I must have been thinking of something else that I completely made up.
Researchers measured cortisol, a hormone released by the body as a result of stress, and found that women with abnormally high levels were more likely to give birth to underweight babes. Oh, well then. I guess those women should probably just be less stressed out, right?
To be fair, the people behind the study set out with the best of intentions: to study the effects of stress on women in low income and minority groups. It just so happens that this is one of those effects. But here's the thing, from U.S. News and World Report:
"Interviews with participants revealed their biggest stressors were related to finances, family relationships, neighborhood, a family death, interpersonal violence and racism."
And then here's the other thing, from the article and the study's press release: "'Women should treat depression, evaluate and treat stress, be sure they are in a healthy relationship, be physically active, stop smoking and gather family support. All of the things that create an optimal pregnancy and healthy life for the mother should be done before getting pregnant.'"
In other words, we're on our own.
Let's just establish how difficult it can be to manage pre-pregnancy and prenatal stress for someone of sufficient means, who has access to affordable healthcare and reliable childcare and who even has a job that offers security and parental leave. There are fertility woes, health concerns, career choices, and the very worry of growing and successfully delivering a life. And that's before someone tells you to stop stressing out otherwise your baby will be dangerously tiny.
Now, take a different group of women who have even realer problems and fewer options. Many of them probably don't have the same access that many of us enjoy to healthcare, mental health professionals, birth control and sexual education, or to family planning resources, nor do they necessarily have the ability to simply change their circumstances because they want to. So they should, like, just go and solve racism in America? Their babies' lives are at stake so they're gonna wanna go ahead and just get that all sorted out real quick.
It seems clear that these particular dots between stress and a newborn baby's health are vital to connect. But to deliver a vague recommendation that women should treat all that ails them and make sure they're all happy and right as rain well ahead of a fully planned pregnancy is only slightly shy of helpful. What about extending the recommendations to OBGYN practitioners? Or providing suggestions to a pathway towards making this happen?
More research is obviously needed, and it isn't necessarily the job of these particular researchers to fill in all of these blanks. But lately I feel like if I read one more study warning pregnant women to stop being so bad at being pregnant, I might have to punch a wall in a hormone-fueled, stress-induced rage.
Phew. I need to calm down. Doctor's orders and all.
Nina Pajak is a writer living with her husband, daughter and dog in Queens. Connect with Nina on Twitter!
