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Aug. 14, 2006 - At least pregnant women can stop worrying about worrying.
Anxiety during pregnancypregnancy doesn't appear to raise the risk of long labor, low birth weight, or other perinatal problems (problems around the time of a baby's birth).
Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, reported that news yesterday at the American Psychological Association's 2006 convention in New Orleans.
"Pregnancy can be an emotional time for women," researcher Heather Littleton, PhD, says in a news release from the American Psychological Association (APA).
"For some, anxiety associated with the pregnancy can be compounded by pre-existing difficulties such as having an inadequate social support system," Littleton says.
Littleton's team reviewed 50 studies involving a combined total of more than 15,000 mothers. Done between 1963 and 2005, the studies ranged in size from 27 to more than 7,000 participants.
During pregnancy, the women rated their current anxiety and their tendency to become anxious in stressful situations.
The anxious mothers-to-be were more likely to also be depressed and to have self-esteem issues.
However, anxious women weren't more likely than calmer ones to have perinatal problems -- such as longer labor and low birth weight babies -- after adjusting for other factors.
However, Littleton and colleagues say more research is needed, since none of the women had extremely high levels of anxiety.
"Such work evaluating the mental and physical health of women during pregnancy could help to increase the number of healthy babies that are born," Littleton says in the news release.
SOURCES: American Psychological Association 2006 Convention, New Orleans, Aug. 10-13, 2006. News release, American Psychological Association.