Pregnancy tips Complications of Extreme Stress In Pregnancy

I found an interesting article about how early pregnancy trauma (i.e. exreme stress) can possibly lead to schizophrenia in the child. Read more:

Early Pregnancy Trauma Boosts Schizophrenia Risk (www.newscientist.com)

From the article:

Evidence that maternal stress might be implicated in schizophrenia susceptibility has been mounting, but until now no one knew which part of the pregnancy was important.

Medical records spanning the short but violent Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967 enabled Dolores Malaspina of New York University School of Medicine and colleagues to pin down when the damage was done.

They analysed the medical records of over 88,000 people born in Jerusalem during the '60s and '70s. The researchers found that women whose mothers were in their second month of pregnancy during the war were 4.3 times more likely to develop schizophrenia later in life, and men 1.2 times more likely, than people born during more peaceful times.