Women are always advised to stay happy after conceiving a child as stress during pregnancy is known to have a negative impact on the baby's healthy growth in the womb and later.
However, women often experience disorders like sadness, fear and other symptoms of depression during pregnancy. Previous studies have shown taking on stress during pregnancy can lead to abnormal health conditions in babies. According to another study, stress affects the immune system of a baby, escalating the risks of the baby suffering serious health problems later in life.
Scientists also found maternal stress reduced the activity of genes related to stress response in children and animal studies have found mother's licking and grooming pups increasing the activity of these genes.
Helping to solve the negative effect, researchers from Universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Kings College London found the power of mother's touch or stroking in the first few days after birth reducing the negative effects of maternal stress on the child's early development.
For the study, the researchers monitored first-time mothers from pregnancy to the first year after birth. Proving their theory, results showed the effects of maternal depression on infant - emotions of fear or anger and heart response to stress at seven months of age- changed by the number of times a mother stroked her baby on head, back, legs or arms in the first few days after birth.
The researchers are now planning to further explore the subject to help mothers who were stressed during pregnancy.
"We are currently following up on the Wirral children in our study to see if reports of early stroking by their mothers continue to make a difference to developmental outcomes over time," Dr. Helen Sharp, from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, said in a news release. "The eventual aim is to find out whether we should recommend that mothers who have been stressed during pregnancy should be encouraged to stroke their babies early in life."
Results of the study have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
