Can prenatal maternal stress increase the risk of asthma?

Maternal stress adversely affects a mother's well-being and health and also negatively impacts her offspring. That this relationship also holds true for maternal stress during the pregnancy period is intuitive. However, whether maternal stress increases the risk of asthma development in her offspring is less clear and will be evaluated in this review. There is evidence from murine models to suggest that maternal stress during pregnancy increases the risk of asthma in the offspring. While recent experimental research adds to the increasing body of evidence supporting a causal relationship between prenatal maternal stress and asthma risk in the offspring, the epidemiological evidence supporting this notion is insufficient. Almost all existing observational studies suffer from severe methodological limitations. Nevertheless, the results from experimental work on maternal stress during pregnancy and asthma risk in the offspring, in concert with other obvious adverse health effects in the offspring are sufficient to justify a recommendation to reduce maternal stressors, particularly during pregnancy.