Prof. Dr. Vagif Rakhmanov, Director of Scientific Research Institute of Child and Family Therapy, Psychology, Medical Rehabilitation, Ukraine
Each positive and negative strain of an expecting mother impacts directly on child’s growth and development.
Based on long-term observations we acknowledge direct correlation between mothers’ psychotraumatic factors and further development of cognitive, communicative, behavioral, psychosomatic disorders among children.
If a mother experiences postnatal stress, she’s got progressing depression, asthenization, anxiety disorder. Lack of night sleep leads to agalactia or disability to take care of a baby.
A baby which is devoid of psychological tactile contact with its mother often suffers from aerocolia, tympanitic abdominal distention, experiences poor somatic growth, over-worrying, anxiety, fear of surrounding people during the first three months of its life. In future such children often demonstrate emotional distance towards both close relatives and other surrounding people. They can’t express emotions adequately; their emotional communication with surrounding world is disturbed. And such children more often show autogenic and heterogenic aggressive behavior.
It should be noted that there is no common rule of manifestation of one or another pathology a child has. After an expecting mother has experienced stress, a new-born baby can be normal. Following factors can affect mental and somatic health of a child: mother’s health condition before stress, her age, nutrition quality, ecological conditions, pattern of reaction to stress, stage of pregnancy, hereditary factors, season, meteorological factors.
After a severe stress a woman can give birth to a healthy baby. But based on thorough examination of child’s lifetime we can observe such children during school time or later, even at the age of 18-20, having psychological and mental problems which they have experienced in antenatal period.
Some scientists assume that probability of childhood autism and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is two times higher if across pregnancy starting with 32nd week of gestation mother has experienced psychological and psychoemotional strain. Children have reduced mental capabilities, in particular, educability.
Mother’s stress directly influences child’s further psychosomatic state. Children which have come through psychotraumatic experiences:
- more often are down with flu (are more amenable to viral infections);
- more often have diagnosis of weakening of immune system, gastrointestinal disorders, loop of thermal control, derangement of metabolic processes;
- get behind counterparts in both somatic and cognitive growth.
Due to long-term experience of scientific research work with families we notice direct correlation between mother’s stress and manifestations of one or another psychosomatic disorder. For example, taking examinations and sleepless nights across pregnancy lead to child’s circadian rhythm sleep disorder, night urinary incontinence (less often night fecal incontinence), tearfulness, irritancy, panic attacks. We state that lack of sleep during gestation period can result in cord entanglement and accelerated labor. If expecting mother experiences tense work atmosphere and strain, children have circadian rhythm sleep disorder, overactive disorder, autogenic and less often heterogenic aggression, shortness of breath or nervous cough, rapid heart rate, often habit of urine overcontinence (less often urinary urgency), fear of a toilet or toilet related situation, fear of potty.
Case study. Across pregnancy mother of twins studied, often stayed awake far into the night and worked. Her chief warned her that she’d be fired in case of pregnancy. She wore tight clothes and flattered abdomen intentionally so that nobody could find out about her pregnancy. She did it till the 5th month of gestation. Then she resigned. Despite positive pregnancy progress her children suffer autism, prominent overactive and attention deficit disorders. One of twins often suffers “prominent psychoemotional outbreaks, stereotyped movements, and he cries incomprehensible things”. Both children go to bed late and suffer daytime sleepiness.
As shown in our observations and by some other accounts, stress during antenatal and perinatal periods leads to complications of female child pregnancy more often than male child pregnancy. In particular, if expecting mother had conflict experience, male children are born inhibited and often a new-born baby's first cry is absent, and in case of female children a threatened miscarriage can occur.
Among children suffering mental and motormental retardation more than 20% cases can be directly correlated with psychotraumatic experiences of expecting mothers.
In Research Institute of Children’s and Family Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychology, Medical and Psychosocial Rehabilitation (Ukraine, the city of Dnipro) we take great efforts to help mothers and their children to restore mental and somatic health lost due to above mentioned reasons.