High levels of cortisol in utero

I think margot Sutherland may have done something on the three stress hormones, cortisol, adrenaline, and one I always forget , in utero and impact on brain development

Thinking Margot
But also the you tube bryan post & oxytocin affects on brains

'Attachment trauma and resilience' by Kate cairns has about the reduced neuro connections in utero

Also see Helen oakwater 'bubblewrapped children' first 2 chapters free download has a lot of useful refs

Thanks PT, I'll check those refs out.

Gilreth, that would be amazing if your sister is willing to contact me. Thank you.

www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/19/1201295109.full.pdf

A science paper from 2012, technical, so not a nice read, but my summary:-

High maternal cortisol in utero at 15weeks was significantly related to larger right amygdala volume in girls at 7 years of age. Those with bigger agmygdala volume had more mood problems.(for which read mental health problems.) No significant effect found in boys.

What was also interesting was that the conclusion section did have a go at 'unpicking' genetics and environment, by pointing out that IVF babies where the child is not genetically related reveal that fetal environment can affect the child's later mental health.

I had always assumed that high stress/alcohol/drugs had the greatest impact later in pregnancy (I think I read something about alcohol some years back) but this paper says brain architecture and development goes on early in pregnancy.

Damson very useful
Blossoms bm got beaten up when prg
Hospital admission
I'm sure the cortisone from that would have been hugely impacting

I cared for a baby who was removed from hospital on day one, straight to me. He was my only placement and we had a very calm home life. Contact stopped almost immediately so out of all my children he had the most normal upbringing. Adopted at age one.

I know the couple who adopted his brother who was left at home for his first 2 years. I expected him to be vastly different to the baby I cared for as their first 12 months were so different. In actual fact they were incredibly similar, even though they'd never met.

There were no drug/alcohol issues and the doctors involved put the similar behaviours down to Cortisol in utero.

Oops, posted to soon.

Margot Sunderland has the following to say,

'Some research shows that unborn babies who are subjected to overly high levels of stress chemicals can go on to have reduced capacity to deal with stress as children and adults. High levels of stress during pregnancy is one of the risk factors for depression and vulnerability to drug-seeking in later life. A baby who has been stressed before birth can be a very unsettled baby after birth and parents may have to work extra hard to regulate their child's painful emotional and physical states. If a stressed baby receives plenty of calming and soothing parenting, his ability to handle stress can improve.

In some cases, too much stress during pregnancy has also been shown to affect the genetic unfolding of key emotion chemicals and hormones in the unborn baby. This means that certain key genes don't do what they're supposed to do; they don't move to the right place in the brain. In the male foetus, for example, overly high levels of stress in the mother can change the impulses of the hormones testosterone and oestrogen. Research with other mammals shows that male infants may be born with a feminized brain, which can have implications for future sexuality.'

I found some notes from a Kate cairns talk
'Babies (under 1s)that are placed for adoption are characteristically difficult to soothe, easily distressed and take a long time to calm- exhaustion overtaking before the stress fully dissipates... They are often babies who struggle with abnormal sleep patterns... Find the muscle co-ordination to feed/ crawl much harder and they have far fewer newer neuro-connections in utero which hampers their attachment systems before we are even on the scene as placements ' (from my notes 2005)