Anxiety and birthweight

The list of drinks and substances that pregnant women have to worry about can seem endless and now researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre have added another factor to the list: anxiety itself. The researchers studied a sample of low-income women half of whom were African-American and half of whom were white. The group already had a number of risk factors - including drinking and smoking - but the study showed that anxiety had an influence over and above this. Anxiety in the last third of pregnancy predicted women having significantly smaller babies whereas in the first and second thirds of pregnancy only those with the most severe anxiety had smaller babies.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091027132253.htm