The Negative Effect of Maternal Stress on Infant Neurodevelopment and How Chiropractic Can Make a Difference
A mother’s level of stress determines her baby’s neurodevelopment according to a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles looked at the relationship of maternal stress on an infant’s brain development. They found that the more stress mothers experienced, the less their babies showed healthy EEG patterns of neurodevelopment. The mothers in the study “shared similar demographics, such as ethnicity, age and family income,” says lead researcher Pat Levitt, “Yet, babies whose mothers reported to be stressed appeared to be less neurologically developed.”
Chiropractic minimizes stress by improving the function of the nervous system, by removing interferences that delay, alter, or obstruct nervous system communication. Chiropractors have long maintained an important link between the nervous system, maternal stress, and a child’s healthy development. Perinatal chiropractic focuses on creating a healthy beginning during pregnancy. Prenatal chiropractors know to honor and support maternal health as early as possible to allow for a greater, easier transition into motherhood, and to assure that children’s health is considered right from the start of perinatal life.
Many mothers have already experienced this through chiropractic care for themselves. They are seeing the changes that chiropractic care has on the well-being of their entire family.
From a chiropractic perspective, the decrease in neurodevelopment in a child whose environment appears stressful to him or her, is itself an intelligent adaptation of the body. In this case, the body knows to re-direct growth from higher brain function to more primitive defense mechanisms to ensure survival. This intelligence is profound considering that it is maternal stress levels, not merely the child’s own stress response, that signals this adaptation. The child functions through his or her mother’s presence.
The first structure to develop in the mother’s womb into a noticeable organ is the neural tube, a highly sensitive proto-nervous system which eventually forms into the infant’s spinal cord and column. Out of this neural tube emerge cells that become the baby’s heart and brain. Just as maternal stress can affect brain development outside the womb, the same can happen during gestation as well, via an interaction between the mother’s nervous system and the child’s neural tube.
Just as maternal stress can affect brain development outside the womb, the same can happen during gestation as well, via an interaction between the mother’s nervous system and the child’s neural tube.
The mother’s nervous system, which processes all her mental, emotional, and physical experiences including stress, provides a baseline resonance frequency for the child to connect with throughout his development. The growing nervous system imitates and bonds to the mother’s nervous system which helps to guide its future growth. The child comes to learn how to experience sensory impressions through an imitation of his or her mother’s nervous system activity. Outside the womb, the same process of deep rapport occurs which took place during the perinatal period.
One key feature of the stress response relevant especially for moms in the modern world, is what’s called The Stress Paradox previously covered in Pathways Magazine. This article discusses how stress on one person can be interpreted and processed negatively, while for someone else it can lead to the building of strength, resilience, and character. The difference is in the attitude taken up by each individual toward the stress.
Neurologically-focused chiropractic care has been able to measure the stress and tension of the nervous system that builds up, creating a shift towards the inability to adapt and decreased resilience. We utilize neuro-scans (rolling thermal, surface electromyography and heart rate variability) to measure, quantify and track this.
Chiropractic adjustments free up the nervous system to communicate more effectively throughout the body and this alleviates tensions on our mind which might otherwise cause us to resort to a negative outlook toward stressful events. Harmful mental and emotional states may be rooted in deeper nervous system alterations of the body.
Second, chiropractic recognizes the intelligence of the body, and the practice of chiropractic was built upon this recognition. This means chiropractic care goes hand in hand with a paradigm of supporting the body’s natural ability. Sometimes, this support alone can make the difference in freeing the mind from negative emotions and attitudes.
This means chiropractic care goes hand in hand with a paradigm of supporting the body’s natural ability.
Many people have never heard doctors speak in this tone or talk about an individual’s health through the visual lens of an innate intelligence in the body. What this does is it changes the playing field from what’s wrong with us, to what’s possible for us once we optimize our innate potential. Once we change our minds in this way, we can harness a new beginning and support our children’s health and development from the earliest stages of their lives.
This article originally appeared in a Pathways to Family Wellness Blog (revised by Dr. Nicole Wong-Homer)