What is the effect of stress on babies and young children? What exactly is stress? Does mother’s stress also affect the baby in the womb?

What makes a baby stressed?

Stress can already arise during pregnancy if the mother herself is stressed. Early in pregnancy, a baby senses how the mother feels and goes along with that feeling. Because babies hear early, at three months, they respond to shrill voices, arguments and loud noises. Studies have shown that babies withdraw in the womb. Already in the womb you can reassure a child by placing your warm hands on your stomach, talking reassuringly to the baby and soothing the baby through sweet music or singing. Research has shown that this relaxes the baby.

Stress at birth

Being born is almost always a stressful moment; Finding your way through the narrow birth canal is no easy feat. After that you usually end up in neon light, with loud, unknown sounds and a baby misses the warmth and safety of the womb. In the belly he was already being supported on all sides, surrounded and that felt so familiar. The open space in which he comes lacks this protection. He already knew sounds, but they were subdued, the baby already knew smells, but certainly less emphatically. Overwhelming, that’s what it must be like to come into the world. It is not without reason that underwater deliveries are in vogue and fortunately many pregnant women ask if the light can be dimmed during delivery. Sometimes beautiful, quiet music is played. In short: as soft a landing as possible.

Cortisol

Cortisol is the substance that is released when stress arises in the body. Stress in itself is useful; During a startle response, which takes place in a part of the brain called the amygdala, a signal is sent to the hypothalamus (the midbrain) and this instructs the adrenal glands: produce cortisol and adrenaline. The latter immediately provides more energy. Cortisol ensures that the body focuses on the problem. Cortisol causes glucose to be released. When the threat has passed, the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped part of the brain, instructs the hypothalamus to stop producing cortisol. The information about the stressor is stored in the brain, so that we can respond even faster next time.

Unhealthy stress

The degree of stress, but especially the duration, determines whether stress is unhealthy. You can imagine that if cortisol is continually produced and is not broken down, the body will become disrupted. The hippocampus, which is supposed to break down, will work less well. The amygdala, where it starts, keeps urging it to produce cortisol and keeps sensing that there is ‘great danger’. The situation is stored in the brain as dangerous and every situation later that resembles it gives the same reaction. You become hypersensitive and your body no longer works properly. Finally, it is an attack on your immune system. The prefrontala cortex could be helpful in stating: it is not that bad. But with too much cortisol it will also work less.

Babies and stress

Babies experience stress just like adults, but their stress system is not yet complete. He is completely dependent on you. He is easily upset by discomfort, pain, frustration and the only way to let you know this is to cry. In fact, if he could talk he would probably shout, Help me! If a baby experiences from the start that you sense what is going on with him and learns to trust you, he will learn to deal with stressful events. You are his stress regulator, until he can do it himself. That is why attention to crying is so important, especially in the first six months, but also afterwards, when this is the only way for a baby to ask for help with its problems. During pregnancy, the cortisol that is present in the mother in stressful situations is passed on to the baby via the placenta. For example, a baby may already be born with an increased Corisol and it is rightly said: stressed mother, stressed baby. Relaxation during pregnancy is therefore very important.