Chemicals are chemicals. Both mood and food can create hormonal and chemical changes in your body.

Stress raises the cortisol level which starts a cascade of chemical events in your body that result in metabolic overdrive. In reality, your mood is sending your body into a physical state of shock, depending on the intensity and frequency of the stress. This is what's known as the “fight or flight” response, which prepares you to fight or run from different levels of life-threatening situations.

During pregnancy intense or chronic stress can be very detrimental to your health, and thus your baby’s health. Stress is documented as increasing the risk of preterm labor and low birth weight.

When a mother is stressed, the fetus is stressed. Stress hormones affect your baby developmentally. They cause biological changes and increase the likelihood of intrauterine infection. Those changes may carry over postpartum in the form of other stress-related pathologies.

One in 10 babies are born preterm. Preterm babies are susceptible later to:

chronic lung disease

learning disorders

developmental delays

infant mortality

Some studies suggest that children of women who deal with a lot of stress in the first trimester show signs of depression. It appears that stressful events happening in the first trimester are critical signals of early labor.

Dr. Dunkel-Schetter, professor of Psychology at the University of California, has devised a survey and blood test to determine who is at highest risk. She says that tragic events such as a loved one dying or losing your job are not leading to early delivery. Instead, what is leading to early labor is being a generally anxious person, such as someone who has a lot of fear about pregnancy and birth.

“But she says it's a continuum. ‘Low levels of anxiety we all know and feel -- sometimes more, sometimes less,’ says Dr. Dunkel-Schetter. ‘The highest level is somebody who has panic attacks or is extremely fearful of many things, and it's probably the case that the higher you are on this continuum, the more risk to your physiology in pregnancy.’” [“Fetus To Mom: You’re Stressing Me Out,”http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51730.]

What Dr. Dunkel-Schetter and other doctors, including my wife, agree on is that reducing this stress is very important.

Perhaps equally important as these techniques is that you have a support network and that you have enough information about prenatal care and pregnancy. You may find support through friends and family, blogs and social networks online, hospital networks and communities of families branching from midwives. There is also plenty of information available through e-books and web blogs.

You can take a childbirth education class to gain information and perspective. Education about birth is a huge stress-reducer. The right childbirth education course can make the birth process seem less mysterious and unknown. That can be very empowering.

Please share this article with expectant mothers you know to help them avoid the dangers of stress during pregnancy.