An ongoing cohort study of Shelby County mothers1 suggests that eight percent of pregnant mothers may regularly experience high levels of prenatal stress, placing their babies, and their early cognitive development at risk.
Early Experience of Pain has Lasting Effects
March 14, 2011
About 9,000 newborn infants are receiving intensive care in the U.S. today, and many will be exposed to medical procedures that cause pain, such as needle sticks and circumcisions. Babies often receive less pain-relieving medicine before invasive procedures or after surgery than adults do. An inflammatory response lasting from hours to days will follow, leading to increased pain sensitivity around the damaged tissue. In the past, this also went untreated, primarily due to the mistaken belief that 'babies don't perceive or remember painful experiences.'
Stress Is a Fact of Life for Young Children as Well as Adults
January 27, 2011
If asked to think of an example of someone affected by stress, most of us would probably imagine a college student studying all night for an exam or an employee scrambling to meet a deadline. Few of us are likely to think of a child listening to his parents argue in the next room, and even fewer would picture an infant being ignored by a mother suffering from depression.
Effects of Stress in Early Childhood
January 24, 2011
Chronic early stress has been linked to behavioral and emotional problems in childhood as well as mental and physical illness later in life.
Toxic Stress Can Wreak Havoc on Children
December 13, 2010
Persistent emotional difficulties can make effective parenting hard, and cause long-lasting problems for a child's brain development. We all face stress at some point in our lives. Job pressures, health problems and relationship difficulties are only a few of the stress-producing circumstances that affect most of us at one time or another.
