Prenatal maternal blood pressure response to stress predicts birth weight and gestational age: a preliminary study

The objective was to test the prospective association between prenatal maternal circulatory responses to a standardized psychologic challenge and birth outcome.

We examined the relationship between blood pressure responses to a cognitive arithmetic stressor and birth outcome in 40 healthy primigravid women. Pregnant women between 18 and 37 years old were recruited from the University of Kentucky Prenatal Service Clinic for participation. All women performed an interactive arithmetic task while maternal heart rate and blood pressures were determined. Subsequent birth outcome parameters of birth weight and gestational age were obtained for prospective analyses.

Results indicated that maternal systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rates were significantly increased during the arithmetic task (p < or = 0.01). Regression analyses suggested that women with larger diastolic blood pressure responses during stress had infants with lower birth weights (p < 0.01) and decreased gestational age (p < 0.05).

This effect was specific to psychologic stress reactivity and was not related to maternal age, maternal race, baseline blood pressures, the trimester of stress testing, nor expired carbon monoxide. The relationship between maternal blood pressure response and birth outcome may reflect the transplacental impact of individual differences in systemic stress responsivity.