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Dr Odile Bagot (Gynecologist-obstetrician)
According to the results of a study published by the American Psychological Association, women who are anxious about their pregnancy give birth on average earlier than others. Scientists therefore suggest screening for anxiety to prevent premature births. Their results are published in the journal Health Psychology.
Anxiety is not good for your health in general. It would be even more harmful in pregnant women, because it would influence the risk of premature delivery. According to scientists, detecting it would therefore help to prevent these early births.
A study throughout pregnancy
Previous studies have already shown that on average, one in four pregnant women has high anxiety symptoms, which can be a risk of premature delivery. This time, the authors of this work examined the link between duration of pregnancy and anxiety by measuring the latter.
For this, a panel of 196 pregnant American women was recruited for a prospective study. The researchers measured anxiety at different times during pregnancy using measurement scales. The anxiety measured was also differentiated: general anxiety or anxiety specifically related to pregnancy, parenthood and the health of the future baby.
Follow your pregnancy week by week
Helping doctors screen for anxiety
The researchers found three things:
- The first is that pregnancy anxiety in the third trimester was more strongly associated with early birth;
- The second finding concerns general anxiety during the first trimester, which also contributes to this risk;
- The third, finally, concerns the scores of the participants on the three scales of anxiety related to pregnancy: they were interdependent. This suggests that the scales are measuring the same thing: an underlying anxiety.
For the authors, the explanation would be that general anxiety in early pregnancy could predispose women to be anxious later in pregnancy, about medical risks, the baby, labor and delivery, or even parenthood in general.
Gynecologist and member of the committee of experts of Doctissimo, Odile Bagot gives us her point of view on the question: “Anxiety is recognized to be a risk factor for preterm birth and it is increasingly being considered and treated. A recent study has just demonstrated the link between taking probiotics and reducing anxiety in pregnant women. This may be a therapeutic avenue to consider for these women, in order to also reduce their risk of premature delivery..
The importance of detecting this anxiety
For the lead author of this study, Dr. Christine Dunkel Schetter of the University of California, Los Angeles “blthough not all women who begin pregnancy with symptoms of general anxiety will experience pregnancy-specific anxiety later on, our results suggest that women who follow this progression are likely to be particularly at risk of giving birth later. early” she explains.
She adds that “theanxiety during an ongoing pregnancy is a powerful psychosocial state. Depressive symptoms are assessed in many clinics around the world to prevent complications of postpartum depression in mothers and children. This study and others suggest that we should also assess anxiety in pregnant women.”.