Abstract
Observations of a link between pregnant woman and fetus, and speculation on its nature abound throughout history, literature, and across cultures. Despite the ubiquity of the phenomenon, relatively little is known about the manner in which the development of the fetus is influenced by the maternal psychological context. Scientific inquiry into the nature of this relationship has been historically hampered not by lack of interest, but by lack of access to the fetus. Although this changed considerably in the 1980s with the development of real time obstetric ultrasound, the prenatal period is the only time in development when interaction between mother and offspring cannot be directly observed and evaluated.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Sontag LW, Richards TW (1938) Studies in fetal behavior: I. Fetal heart rate as a behavioral indicator. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 3(4 Serial No. 17):1–67
Sontag LW (1941) The significance of fetal environmental differences. Am J Obstet Gynecol 42:996–1003
Berntson G, Cacioppo J, Quigley K (1993) Respiratory sinus arrhythmia: autonomic origins, physiological mechanisms, and psychophysiological implications. Psychophysiology 30:183–196
Venables PH (1991) Autonomic activity. Ann N Y Acad Sci 620:191–207
Paarlberg KM, Vingerhoets A, Passchier J, Dekker G, van Geijn H (1995) Psychosocial factors and pregnancy outcome: a review with emphasis on methodological issues. J Psychosom Res 39:563–595
Van den Bergh B, Mulder E, Mennes M, Glover V (2005) Antenatal maternal anxiety and stress and the neurobehavioral development of the fetus and child: links and possible mechanisms. A review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 29:237–258
DiPietro JA, Hilton SC, Hawkins M, Costigan KA, Pressman EK (2002) Maternal stress and affect influence fetal neurobehavioral development. Dev Psychol 38:659–668
Field T, Diego M, Hernandez-Reif M, Schanberg S, Kuhn C, Yando R, Bendell D (2003) Pregnancy anxiety and comorbid depression and anger: effects on the fetus and neonate. Depress Anxiety 17:140–151
DiPietro J, Kivlighan K, Costigan K, Rubin S, Shiffler D, Henderson J, Pillion J (2010) Prenatal antecedents of newborn neurological maturation. Child Dev 81:115–130
Richards T, Newbery H (1938) Studies in fetal behavior: III. Can performance on test items at six months postnatally be predicted on the basis of fetal activity? Child Dev 9:79–86
DiPietro JA, Ghera MM, Costigan KA, Hawkins M (2004) Measuring the ups and downs of pregnancy. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 25:189–201
DiPietro JA, Christensen A, Costigan KA (2008) The pregnancy experience scale – brief version. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 29:262–267
Buitelaar J, Huizink A, Mulder E, de Medina Robles P, Visser G (2003) Prenatal stress and cognitive development and temperament in infants. Neurobiol Aging 24:S53–S60
Davis E, Sandman C (2010) The timing of prenatal exposure to maternal cortisol and psychosocial stress is associated with human infant cognitive development Child Dev 81:131–148
DiPietro JA, Costigan KA, Sipsma H (2008) Continuity in self-report measures of maternal anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms from pregnancy through two years postpartum. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 29:115–124
Rice F, Harold G, Bolvin J, Hay D, van den Bree M, Thapar A (2009) Disentangling prenatal and inherited influences in humans with an experimental design. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:2464–2467
Gutteling B, de Weerth C, Zandbelt N, Mulder E, Visser G, Buitelaar J (2006) Does maternal prenatal stress adversely affect the child’s learning and memory at age six? J Abnorm Child Psychol 34:789–798
Petraglia F, Hatch M, Lapinski R, Stomati M, Reis F, Cobellis L, Berkowitz G (2001) Lack of effect of psychosocial stress on maternal corticotropin-releasing factor and catecholamine levels at 28 weeks of gestation. J Soc Gynecol Investig 8:83–88
Copher DE, Huber C (1967) Heart rate response of the human fetus to induced maternal hypoxia. Am J Obstet Gynecol 98:320–335
Monk C, Myers MM, Sloan RP, Ellman LM, Fifer WP (2003) Effects of women’s stress-elicited physiological activity and chronic anxiety on fetal heart rate. J Dev Behav Pediatr 24:32–38
Monk C, Sloan RP, Myers MM, Ellman L, Werner E, Jeon J, Tager F, Fifer WP (2004) Fetal heart rate reactivity differs by women’s psychiatric status: an early marker for developmental risk? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43:283–290
DiPietro J, Costigan K, Gurewitsch E (2003) Fetal response to induced maternal stress. Early Hum Dev 74:125–138
DiPietro JA, Ghera MM, Costigan KA (2008) Prenatal origins of temperamental reactivity in infancy. Early Hum Dev 84:569–575
DiPietro J, Costigan K, Nelson P, Gurewitsch E, Laudenslager M (2008) Maternal and fetal responses to induced relaxation during pregnancy. Biol Psychol 77:11–19
Lecaneut JP, Jacquet AY (2002) Fetal responsiveness to maternal passive swinging in low heart rate variability state: effects of stimulation direction and duration. Dev Psychobiol 40:57–67
Groome L, Mooney D, Holland S, Smith L, Atterbury J, Dykman R (1999) Behavioral state affects heart rate response to low-intensity sound in human fetuses. Early Hum Dev 54:39–54
Novak MFS (2004) Fetal–maternal interactions: prenatal psychobiological precursors to adaptive infant development. Curr Top Dev Biol 59:37–60
Querleu D, Renard X, Boutteville C, Crepin G (1989) Hearing by the human fetus? Semin Perinatol 13:409–420
DiPietro JA, Irizarry RA, Costigan KA, Gurewitsch ED (2004) The psychophysiology of the maternal–fetal relationship. Psychophysiology 41:510–520
Patrick J, Campbell K, Carmichael L, Probert C (1982) Influence of maternal heart rate and gross fetal body movements on the daily pattern of fetal heart rate near term. Am J Obstet Gynecol 144:533–538
DiPietro J, Caulfield LE, Irizarry RA, Chen P, Merialdi M, Zavaleta N (2006) Prenatal development of intrafetal and maternal–fetal synchrony. Behav Neurosci 120:687–701
Johnson TRB, Jordan ET, Paine LL (1990) Doppler recordings of fetal movement: II. Comparison with maternal perception. Obstet Gynecol 76:42–43
DiPietro JA, Costigan KA, Shupe AK, Pressman EK, Johnson TRB (1998) Fetal neurobehavioral development: associations with socioeconomic class and fetal sex. Dev Psychobiol 33:79–91
Nasello-Paterson C, Natale R, Connors G (1988) Ultrasonic evaluation of fetal body movements over twenty-four hours in the human fetus at twenty-four to twenty-eight weeks’ of gestation. Am J Obstet Gynecol 158:312–316
ten Hof J, Nijhuis IJM, Mulder EJH, Nijhuis JG, Narayan H, Taylor DJ, Visser GHA (1999) Quantitative analysis of fetal generalized movements: methodological considerations. Early Hum Dev 56:57–73
Bell RQ (1968) A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies socialization. Psychol Rev 75:81–95
Kinsley C, Madonia L, Gifford G, Tureski K, Griffin G, Lowry C, Williams J, Collins J, McLearie H, Lambert K (1999) Motherhood improves learning and memory. Nature 402:137–138
Buckwalter J, Stanczyk F, McCleary C, Bluestein B, Buckwalter D, Randin K, Chang L, Goodwin T (1999) Pregnancy, the postpartum, and steroid hormones: effects on cognition and mood. Psychoneuroendocrinology 24:69–84
de Groot R, Adam J, Hornstra G (2003) Selective attention deficits during human pregnancy. Neurosci Lett 340:21–24
DiPietro J, Costigan KA, Gurewitsch ED (2005) Maternal physiological change during the second half of gestation. Biol Psychol 69:23–38
Kammerer M, Adams D, von Castelberg B, Glover V (2002) Pregnant women become insensitive to cold stress. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2:8
Matthews KA, Rodin J (1992) Pregnancy alters blood pressure responses to psychological and physical challenge. Psychophysiology 29:232–240
DiPietro JA, Novak MF, Costigan KA, Atella LD, Reusing SP (2006) Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy in relation to child development at age two. Child Dev 77:573–587
Ellman LM, Schetter CD, Hobel CJ, Chicz-DeMet A, Glynn LM, Sandman CA (2008) Timing of fetal exposure to stress hormones: effects on newborn physical and neuromuscular maturation. Dev Psychobiol 50:232–241
Davis E, Snidman N, Wadhwa P, Glynn L, Dunkel-Schetter C, Sandman C (2004) Prenatal maternal anxiety and depression predict negative behavioral reactivity in infancy. Infancy 6:319–331
Gutteling B, de Weerth C, Buitelaar J (2005) Prenatal stress and children’s cortisol reaction to the first day of school. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30:541–549
Huizink A, de Medina Robles P, Mulder E, Visser G, Buitelaar J (2002) Psychological measures of prenatal stress as predictors of infant temperament. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 41:1078–1085
Weinstock M (2001) Alterations induced by gestational stress in brain morphology and behavior of the offspring. Prog Neurobiol 65:427–451
Fujioka T, Fujioka A, Tan N, Chowdhury G, Mouri H, Sakata Y, Nakamura S (2001) Mild prenatal stress enhances learning performance in the non-adopted rat offspring. Neuroscience 103:301–307
Meek L, Burda K, Paster E (2000) Effects of prenatal stress on development in mice: maturation and learning. Physiol Behav 71:543–549
DiPietro JA (2004) The role of prenatal maternal stress in child development. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 13:71–74
Amiel-Tison C, Pettigrew AG (1991) Adaptive changes in the developing brain during intrauterine stress. Brain Dev 13:67–76
Huether G (1998) Stress and the adaptive self-organization of neuronal connectivity during early childhood. Int J Neurosci 16:297–306
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
DiPietro, J.A. (2010). Maternal Influences on the Developing Fetus. In: Zimmerman, A., Connors, S. (eds) Maternal Influences on Fetal Neurodevelopment. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-921-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-921-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-60327-920-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-921-5
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)