Even if a disaster didn't affect you directly, your stress can
affect your
unborn baby.
By
Linda Formichelli, published on January 01, 2002 - last reviewed on August 30, 2004
The repercussions of September 11, 2001 may extend to a generation
yet unborn, according to a new study on communal bereavement, the
widespread experience of distress among people who never met the
deceased. Disasters like the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon can cause an increase in the number of very low-birth-weight
babies, according to researchers who studied this phenomenon after two
disasters in Sweden.
Ralph Catalano, Ph.D., professor of public health at the University
of California at Berkeley, and Terry Hartig, a docent at the Institute
for Housing Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, analyzed birth
records after the assassination of Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986 and
the sinking of the ferry Estonia in 1994. The incidence of very low birth
weight--less than 3.3 pounds--increased by 21 percent after the Palme
assassination and by 15 percent after the Estonia disaster. The results
were published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
So what's the connection? Stress is assumed to increase the level
of corticosteroids in pregnant women. These stress hormones can expedite
delivery, causing babies to be born prematurely. "There's a mechanism
that senses if the environment is going to be a threat to a particular
fetus," says Catalano. "From an evolutionary point of view, you don't
want to have a lot of weak fetuses brought into the world, otherwise the
gene pool will have a lot of individuals who would not make it to the age
of reproduction." Another possible explanation is that stress compromises
immune function in women, activating latent infections and increasing the
likelihood of preterm delivery.
Catalano now plans to study the incidence of very low birth weight
resulting from the September 11 attacks. "The theory suggests that we
should get the same response here that we found in Sweden," says
Catalano. But given the recent anthrax scares and the economic decline,
the study won't be easy. Economic insecurity is itself a known risk
factor for very low birth weight.
Tags:
california at berkeley,
fetuses,
gene pool,
immune function,
journal of health and social behavior,
low birth weight,
september 11 2001,
stress hormones,
university in sweden,
university of california at berkeley,
uppsala university in sweden
