Stress During Pregnancy Has Detrimental Effect On Offspring

ScienceDaily (2008-10-29) reports that

stress during pregnancy may have unfortunate consequences for children born under those conditions – slower development, learning and attention difficulties, anxiety and depressive symptoms and possibly even autism.

While we are surely grateful for the study and its results, scientists should give a bit of credit to Indian's scientists of yore, who arrived at the same conclusions thousands of years ago. Ayurvedic texts discuss not only the implications of stress during pregnancy, but also effective ways of planning for conception, and the diet and lifestyle that should be followed in order to produce a healthy, balanced child.

People frequently come to me with problems they face with their children regarding learning and especially behavior. I usually ask them to describe the state of their lives while the mother was pregnant--what she ate, what she did, where she lived, who else stayed in the home, the general mood, etc. I also ask them similar questions related to the the child's infancy--first three years of the child's life. Inevitably, I find that parents with the most extreme problems violated a majority of the principles clearly defined by Ayurveda.

The unfortunate thing is that by the time they meet me, the damage is done. During the early stages of development, the brain's wiring--the essential configuration of its neural networks is more or less laid down permanently--like the infrastructure of a building such as pipes, electrical lines, vents, etc. Once a building is up, redoing infrastructure is nearly impossible. In the case of both buildings and people, this doesn't mean nothing can be done if problems exist in the basic foundation. But then the process of remedy is more about damage control than cure, and in many instances, the problems resurface repeatedly over time.

I hope more new and expecting parents take note of this, and take greater care with respect to the period of pregnancy and infancy. You are always welcome to speak with a Jiva doctor for free advice via email info@jiva.com or by phone +91-129-4088152.

Till then, see what Dr. Partap Chauhan has to say about Ayurveda and a healthy pregnancy: