This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Maternal trauma, higher cortisol levels tied to infant birth weight

Male infants born to mothers with a history of trauma and higher third trimester cortisol levels had significantly lower birth weights, according to research findings.

"Identifying a prior history of trauma and providing interventions, for example treatment for associated mood disturbances, could lead to improved perinatal outcomes that have lifelong implications for health of mother and baby,” Julie D. Flom, MD, MPH, from the department of pediatrics, Kravis Children’s Hospital, New York, said in a press release.

The investigators examined the connections between maternal lifetime traumatic stress and offspring birth weight as well as the modifying effects of third trimester cortisol and fetal sex among 314 mother-infant dyads from an ethnically diverse pregnancy cohort. They analyzed data on maternal lifetime trauma reported using the Life Stressor Checklist-Revised, birth weight for gestational age z-scores and third trimester cortisol secretion using mothers’ hair sample collected at birth.

Mothers were primarily minorities (41% Hispanic and 26% black) and 63% reported at least one traumatic event. Analysis revealed that prenatal cortisol modified the relationship between maternal lifetime trauma and infant’s birthweight.

Flom and colleagues found that a 1-unit increase in maternal trauma score was linked to a 0.19-unit reduction (95% CI, –0.34 to –0.04) in birth weight for gestational age z-scores among male infants exposed to prenatal cortisol at the 90th percentile (ie, 74.03 pg/mg). In addition, a 1-unit rise in maternal trauma score was tied to a 0.14-unit increase (95% CI, 0.03-0.26) in birth weight for gestational age z-scores among males exposed to prenatal cortisol at the 10th percentile (ie, 1.14 pg/mg). Regardless of prenatal cortisol levels, there was no connection between maternal trauma score and birth weight in female infants, according to the results.

"Our study highlights that experiences prior to pregnancy can shape the health of subsequent generations through altered fetal development and pregnancy outcomes," senior author Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, of Kravis Children’s Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in the release. "Given the disproportionate exposure to stressors among racial minorities and women of lower socioeconomic status, there are important implications for understanding intergenerational perpetuation of health disparities and for understanding how to intervene." – by Savannah Demko

Disclosure: Flom reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.