Screening for pregnancy anxiety in the first and third trimesters can help reduce early births

Key takeawaysPregnancy anxiety  is associated with shorter gestation times and earlier births.Screening during the first and third trimesters could help reduce early births.Latina women may experience higher levels of pregnancy anxiety than other groups.A new UCLA study has found anxiety specific to pregnancy and childbirth is associated with shorter gestation times and earlier births. One screening tool administered in the first trimester could reliably predict early birth. Screening for depression in pregnancy and postpartum is now a common part of maternal care; the authors suggest that adding an evaluation for anxiety in early pregnancy and for a more specific form of anxiety called pregnancy anxiety during pregnancy could identify women who might need interventions for healthier pregnancies and babies. Theresearch is published in the journal, Health Psychology.“The key finding in this new paper is that anxiety about a current pregnancy robustly predicted earlier birth measured in weeks of gestation,” said UCLA psychology professor Christine Dunkel Schetter, who led the research. “Gestational length is one way of understanding the risk of preterm bir th with attendant adversities for mother and child. This finding is consistent with our prior research and that of others.”In the five-year study,  “Healthy Babies Before Birth,” Dunkel Schetter and co-authors examined the relationships between maternal mood disorders before birth, pregnancy-specific anxiety an...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news