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Abstract:
Stress experienced by pregnant women can influence pregnancy outcomes and place pregnant women at greater risk for illness. Stress during pregnancy can also put women at increased risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, and hypertension. Furthermore, babies exposed to prenatal maternal stress could have later physical, intellectual, and behavioral difficulties. It is important to note that racial or ethnic minority pregnant women appear to have challenging pregnancy outcomes that are not associated with stress.
Keywords: psychoneuroimmunology, stress, immune response, pregnancy risk, ethnic disparities
The immune system causes physiological responses when humans are exposed to stress. The immune system also changes when women become pregnant, putting pregnant women at greater risk for infections. In contrast, pregnancy can also improve women's symptoms from pre-existing illnesses like arthritis or multiple sclerosis. It is important for expecting women to know that stress during pregnancy is not good for babies and might cause later physical, intellectual, or behavioral problems for babies or increase risks for preterm birth, hypertension, smaller-sized babies, and lower birth weight. Pregnant women in racial, ethnic, and lower economic groups can have poor pregnancy outcomes which are not caused by stress, but caused by feelings of discrimination (Christian, 2012; Fetzer, 201 1; Shannon, King, & Kennedy, 2007).
Allostasis and Human Immune Stress Responses
Allostasis is the human body's effort to cope with stress when individuals are strained and trying to maintain balance. This effort engages the body's psychoneuroimmunological system, which can cause helpful or harmful physical responses in person's emotional, cardiovascular, intellectual, endocrine, or immune systems. These physical responses are part of an interactive feedback loop that releases stress hormones such as norepinephrine, adrenocorticosteroid hormone, and Cortisol when persons experience stress. Changes in these hormones can cause changes in the body. Stress can increase blood pressure and heart rate, decrease the appetite, and diminish thinking abilities. Stress also can lead to slowed motor responses, decreased weight, difficulty sleeping, fearfulness, and decreased sexual behaviors. Finally, stress makes individuals vulnerable to upper respiratory infections, can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, and slow the healing of wounds (Christian, 2012; Mulder et al., 2002; Shannon et al., 2007).
Immune Stress Responses and Pregnancy
Women's socio-economic status (SES), education level, age, readiness for pregnancy, emotional health, relationship status, concern...