<!--put comment to force the end tag of span-->Quality of (In Utero) Life Issues
A fetus's only source of sustenance is the food and oxygen its mother takes in, and its access to those supplies can be precarious. The mom's meals nourish her first, then travel a winding path—through temporarily expanded uterine arteries to the greedy placenta, and finally along the rope-like umbilical cord.
If a mother eats a low-calorie or low-protein diet, or one deficient in essential fats or critical nutrients, such as folic acid, vitamin D, or iron, a fetus may lack the raw materials it needs to properly build its brain and other organs. (Iron-deficient infants are shyer, fussier, and less sociable.) Children born to women who are pregnant during a famine, for example, are more susceptible to heart disease and depression when they grow up. Starved fetuses build smaller organs with fewer blood vessels, which can lead to high blood pressure later on. Animal research suggests that not eating enough in the first days after conception can increase the potential for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which is why women should eat well while trying to get pregnant.
But eating too much is also risky. When women gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy (25 to 35 pounds for healthy women), their kids are 48 percent more likely to be overweight at the age of seven. A high-fat diet during pregnancy reshapes rat offspring's brains, making them crave fatty foods and putting them at risk for lifelong obesity.
The negative effects of drinking while pregnant are well-known: Alcohol can damage key areas of the fetal brain, including the prefrontal cortex—the region responsible for planning, decision-making, and emotional restraint. What's new and disturbing is research showing that imbibing just a couple of drinks a day during the first 50 days after conception, when a woman may not yet know she is pregnant, creates the strongest effects.
Chemicals that lurk invisibly in our clothes and furniture, in the food we eat, and in the air we breathe dominate today's world. Some, like bisphenol A, a compound in some plastic water and baby bottles, resemble hormones such as estrogen that are produced by our own bodies, which makes them potentially harmful even at very low levels because the body is primed to respond to them. There is concern that the increase in abnormalities of newborn boys' reproductive organs—the rate of hypospadias, a birth defect of the urethra, doubled in the U.S. between 1970 and 1993—results from maternal exposure to such chemicals.
<!--put comment to force the end tag of span-->Faith, Love, and Compensation
My sons were born free of Listeria, and in fact were healthy in every way. But I now realize that there could be hidden problems. Twins have a harder time in utero because a mother can supply only so much food and oxygen, and they must share it. On top of that, this was my first pregnancy and I was over 35—factors that limit the stretchiness of the blood vessels that shuttle oxygen and nutrients to the uterus. Let's just say my fetuses were getting their supplies through a coffee stirrer instead of a straw.
And yet I remind myself: Birth is a beginning, not an ending. Nurturing and mental stimulation can reverse the effects of a compromised pregnancy. Monk and colleagues found that 4-month-old infants had high levels of stress hormones in their saliva when their mothers were anxious or depressed before the birth and unresponsive afterward. But when moms were attuned to their babies, the infants' cortisol levels were normal, no matter what the pregnancy was like.
If children learn good exercise and eating habits, they are unlikely to become obese or get diabetes. If their parents and other caregivers engage and nurture them, it is less likely they will develop learning or conduct disorders. "You can look at it as though the system has been primed," says Marta Weinstock-Rosin, a psychopharmacologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "But if nothing else bad happens and everything is calm, it may well be all right."
And with an enriched upbringing, a compromised prenatal environment might even be turned to advantage. When brain development has been altered because a pregnant woman was highly anxious, drank martinis, or ate too much mercury-tainted fish, the resulting baby may be high-strung and hard to soothe. But the same sensitivity that leads to moodiness can also confer empathy and awareness. "You might just be more able to take in what's around you and actually do even better than average," Monk says.
Still, there's no getting around the fact that a mother's experiences profoundly shape her developing baby. Now that I know this, would I live my pregnancy differently? Absolutely. I would have eaten organic as much as possible to reduce my fetuses' exposure to toxins. To ensure that they had all the essential building blocks to grow healthy brain tissue, I would have poured flaxseed oil over my cereal and served up kale and broccoli almost every night. I would have begun taking prenatal vitamins and iron before getting pregnant. And imagining those little guys depending on me for all their oxygen, I would have thrown myself into yoga and spent 10 minutes every morning and evening taking deep breaths.
But I also remind myself of what I did right—a fair amount, judging from the mischievous, affectionate 2-year-olds my boys have become. "To have a baby is a huge affirmation and commitment to life and love," Monk says. Besides doing their best to stay healthy, mothers have no choice but to take a big leap of faith. —Emily Laber-Warren
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