The maternal daily hassles stress is imprinted on fetal development

ANTONELLI MARTA CRISTINA; CAMILA ZELGERT; ALEXANDER MUELLER; CHAO SHEN; FRASCH, MARTIN G.; BIBIANA FABRE; BERHARD HALLER; HAUTIENG WU; JOY WEYRICH; GABRIELA BERG; PEI-CHUNG SU; SILVIA LOBMAIER

San Diego

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigations; 2018

ABSTRACTImportance: Prenatal stress (PS) during pregnancy affects in utero and postnatal child brain development. One in five pregnant women experience PS. Key systems affected are the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Maternal and fetal ANS activity can be gauged non-invasively from heart rate variability (HRV) derived from transabdominal electrocardiogram (taECG). Objective: We hypothesized that PS impacts HRV signature of ANS activity in mother and the fetus.Design: Prospective observational cohort study in stressed mothers with controls matched for gestational age at screening. Stressed group (SG) was defined from 28 week of gestation onwards by Cohen Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire with PSS-10 ≥ 19 classified as SG. Women with PSS-10 < 19 served as control group (CG).Setting: ?Klinikum rechts der Isar? of the Technical University of Munich.Participants: Singleton 3rd trimester pregnant women of 18 - 45 years without serious placental alterations, fetal malformations, maternal severe illness during pregnancy and drug or alcohol abuse.Intervention: None.Main Outcome(s) and Measurement(s): Main outcomes were the differences in in SG versus CG for maternal and fetal HRV during 3rd trimester and maternal hair cortisol levels at delivery. Maternal and fetal HRV was derived from taECG recorded at 32-36 weeks of gestation. Perinatal outcome data were recorded.Results: 1500 women were screened and 532 women enrolled of which 15.6% showed a PSS-10 score ≥ 19. 49 women eventually comprised the SG and n=55 served as CG at a similar median gestational age of 36.4 weeks. Median PSS was 22.0 (21.0-24.5) and 10.0 (7.0-13.9) (p