Pregnant women may pass stress marker to babies

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Pregnant women may pass stress marker to babies By Reaney

Tue May 3, 3:21 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Pregnant women who were traumatised by witnessing

the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center may have passed on a

biological sign of stress to their unborn babies, scientists said on

Tuesday.

Researchers found the women and their babies had reduced levels of

the stress hormone cortisol, which is a sign someone has been

affected by post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Low levels of cortisone have been observed in the children of

Holocaust survivors, but researchers had put them down to living

with a depressed parent or hearing stories about what had happened

to them.

The latest study suggests however that a mother can pass on low

cortisol levels to her unborn child, researchers at the Mount Sinai

School of Medicine in New York and the University of Edinburgh in

Scotland said.

" This shows that exposure to severe stress in pregnancy is

associated not only with PTSD in the mothers but also with the

biologic marker of it -- low hormone levels in the saliva -- in the

offspring long before they could have been listening to tales, "

Professor Seckl, of the University of Edinburgh, said in an

interview.

Seckl said it was too early to tell if the children would suffer any

ill effects. The researchers plan to follow up the children during

their development. In a study of 38 pregnant women Seckl and Dr

Yehuda, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, found lower than

normal levels of cortisol in saliva samples from the women who

suffered PTSD linked to the 9/11 attacks, and in their infants.

The mothers and their babies had lower levels of the hormone than

women who did not develop PTSD following the tragedy. Even a year

after the children's birth, babies of stressed mothers had lower

levels than other children.

" Something happens in PTSD that makes the brain more sensitive to

cortisol, " said Seckl.

" It marks some change that has happened in the brain. "

The low levels were most apparent in babies born to mothers who were

in the final three months of their pregnancy on 9/11, according to

the study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and

Metabolism.

" The findings suggest that mechanisms for transgenerational

transmission of biologic effects of trauma may have to do with very

early parent-child attachments, " Yehuda said in a statement.

She added the effects of cortisol programing could even begin before

birth.

The findings suggest a mother suffering from PTSD may provide a less

effective, or different, form of care for her child or there may

have been some sort of biological signal sent through the placenta

to the fetus while it was developing.