Effects of maternal breathing rate, psychiatric status, and cortisol on fetal heart rate

Abstract

Objective Prenatal exposure to women’s mood dysregulation is associated with variation in neurobehavioral profiles in children. Few studies have assessed these relationships during the prenatal period. Methods In 113 women in the 36th – 38th gestational week (mean age 26.3 ± 5.4 years), electrocardiogram, blood pressure, respiration, salivary cortisol, and fetal heart rate (HR) were measured during baseline, a psychological challenge (Stroop color–word matching task), and a standardized paced breathing protocol. Subjects underwent the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV prior to testing and were grouped as: depressed, co–morbid for depression and anxiety, anxiety disorder only, and control. Results There was a significant main effect of maternal diagnostic group on fetal HR only during the Stroop task: fetuses of women in the co–morbid group had a greater HR increase compared to controls (p < .05). Overall, fetuses showed robust increases in HR during paced breathing (p < .0001), but there was no significant difference by maternal diagnosis. For both tasks, changes in fetal HR were independent of women’s concurrent cardiorespiratory activity. Finally, although cortisol was higher in the co-morbid group (p <.05), independent of diagnosis, there was a trend for maternal baseline cortisol to be positively associated with average fetal HR (p = .08). Conclusions These findings indicate that variation in fetal HR reactivity — an index of emerging regulatory capacities — is likely influenced by multiple acute and chronic factors associated with women’s psychobiology.

Relationships Among Prenatal Depression, Plasma Cortisol, and Inflammatory Cytokines

“…Maternal cortisol levels may also have both short- and long-term effects on the development and responsiveness of the infant’s HPA, as reported by Monk et al (2011).…”

Pregnancy distress gets under fetal skin: Maternal ambulatory assessment & sex differences in prenatal development

“…These findings are in line with an animal model showing that in pregnant rats exposure to mild stress is associated with offspring having enhanced learning abilities (Fujioka et al, 2001). Previously, we reported maternal prenatal distress, including frank psychiatric symptoms of mood disorders, was associated with greater FHR reactivity when women underwent a laboratory stressor, and interpreted the findings using a risk-model as indicating a potential marker for future stress-based psychopathology (Monk et al, 2000, 2004, 2010). Possibly these results instead index accelerated development and more mature ANS control of the cardiac system.…”

“…The first approach hypothesizes that atypical fetal outcomes indicate an increased risk of future psychopathology; in the latter, fetal development is accelerated to reduce exposure to a nonoptimal in utero experience and reduce maternal investment in an offspring with fewer chances for postnatal survival (Gluckman, 2005; Pike, 2005). Until recently (Sandman, Davis, & Glynn, 2012), the majority of fetal studies, including our own (Monk et al, 2000, 2004, 2010), have focused on the identification of an at-risk phenotype and that approach informed the hypotheses in this study.…”

Postnatal auditory preferences in piglets differ according to maternal emotional experience with the same sounds during gestation

“…Fetal heart changes would be a great way to begin to understand the interplay between the auditory stimuli and emotional experience, similar to what has been done in human fetuses30. Future studies on pigs and other species should help disentangle the various processes involved in the prenatal transmission of both positive and negative emotional experiences.…”

“…But this influence also occurs at much earlier stages, such as the fetal stage. It has been demonstrated in humans that the emotional state of the pregnant female during experimental tasks is reflected in changes in heart rate and heart rate variability of the fetus: it seems that variations in women’s emotion based physiological activity can affect the fetus2829, especially if they are scored as being anxious2830.…”