Chronic stress during pregnancy reduces babies' iron, study finds

Chronic stress during pregnancy is bad for fetal development and pregnancy outcomes, many studies have shown.

New research from the University of Washington and the Technical University of Munich reveals how prenatal stress can decrease how much iron the baby gets. And iron is crucial for brain development and cognition.

The researchers started by giving 2,000 pregnant people a questionnaire asking them how stressed they were.

“We wanted to identify the participants based on how they feel, not based on what a biomarker says,” said Dr. Martin Frasch, a researcher at the University of Washington and one of the study authors. “Stress is highly subjective.”